


We're so Different

by seokinthewoodz



Category: UP10TION, X1 (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Eventual Romance, Fluff and Angst, Getting to Know Each Other, M/M, Muggle/Wizard Relations, Not Beta Read, Pining, Rating May Change, Slice of Life, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:27:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 40,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22584853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seokinthewoodz/pseuds/seokinthewoodz
Summary: On a snowy night, Seungyoun finds an injured cat on the street and saves its life. Little he knows that the cat isn't just a common cat, and that his dull life is about to take a turn.
Relationships: Cho Seungyeon | Seungyoun/Kim Wooseok | Wooshin
Comments: 41
Kudos: 190





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!  
> I started to write this fanfiction a few months ago, when X1 was still active. My plan was to write the fic entirely and then post it on AO3, but sadly X1 disbanded in the meantime... after much thought, I've decided to post anyway, since I've put a lot of time and effort into this fanfic (the story is very long, almost 50k words so far, and it isn't finished yet), and I would like for fellow One Its to read it, if they want to. :)  
> Just please, mind that English isn't my first language and the fic is not beta read! So it may cointain a lot of grammar mistakes, lots of oddly worded sentences and such. I still hope you'll enjoy it!

It was late, and it was snowing. Seungyoun had no problem with snow, but he had a problem with unpredicted bad weather. He had checked the weather forecast before going out that morning, and no one had predicted that intense snowstorm that was now covering Seoul in a thick layer of radiant flakes. So, before leaving the house to go to work, Seungyoun didn’t bring with him his umbrella nor wear his boots. Of course, of course. He was feeling kind of annoyed now, but earlier, when he had seen the first snowflakes falling from the sky through the windows of the coffee shop he worked at, he had smiled. Reality hit him much later, when the initial pretty snowfall turned into a mess.  


With the hood of his jacket pulled over his head and the red scarf secured around the lower half of his face to protect himself from the freezing cold, Seungyoun tried hard not to slip while scurrying home as fast as he could. The snow was getting into his sneakers and he was starting to lose sensibility in his toes. To avoid snow as much as he could, he decided to take another road to go home, the one his GPS on his phone was telling him was the shortest and fastest route. It didn’t look like that, it just looked like a darker street, but at least the trees on the side of the way were offering a small shelter from the snow.  


It was then that Seungyoun noticed it. He almost missed it, because it was small and as white as the snow all around it. Seungyoun got closer and realized it was a cat. A pretty cat with long white fur was sleeping hidden under an old and broken chair abandoned next to the trash bins, where snow wouldn’t bother it. The cat looked well-cared of, like a purebred or similar, although Seoungyoun didn’t know much about cats in general. One thing was obvious, though, the cat was injured. Blood was slipping from a deep wound in the cat’s right front leg and Seungyoun honestly wondered for a moment, terrified, if the small creature was dead. He put his fingers under the cat’s nose and stroked the soft fur; the cat didn’t react but at least it was breathing, it was still alive, but the wound looked bad.  


A million thoughts crossed Seungyoun’s mind. First of all, the cat wasn’t wearing any collar with a name tag or anything, was it really a stray cat? It didn’t seem so. Second, he needed a vet clinic. Third, it was still snowing hard and he was in a hurry… a taxi? How much time would it take for a taxi to come in that horrible weather? Fourth, could he even afford a vet clinic? While his mind was going wild, he automatically took the small kitty in his arms, put it inside his jacket in order to keep it warm and safe and started running like the end of the world was coming.

***

Sitting nervously on the edge of one of the chairs in the waiting room of the first vet clinic that Seungyoun could find open at that ungodly hour, Seungyoun felt like shit. He still had to have dinner, his feet were soaked in freezing melted snow and couldn’t feel them anymore, it was past midnight and he was pretty tired after a day of work, but mostly he was just praying that the cat would survive. After all the running he did to catch a taxi and reach the closest vet clinic, saving the cat’s life was now a matter of principle.  


«Cho Seungyoun-ssi?» a male voice called his name all of a sudden. Seungyoun got up immediately, blurting a loud «YES». The tall guy who just called Seungyoun stretched his lips in a sleepy and broad smile. The most impressive thing about him, in Seungyoun’s opinion, was the fact he could still see even with his black hair over his eyes. The name tag on his green gown spelled “Han Seungwoo”.  


«So, about the cat… its right front leg luckily isn’t broken but it has a very ugly cut, the poor thing has lost a lot of blood. I’m going to do some exams on it to make sure it doesn’t have any internal trauma. You said you found it on the street, right? It was probably hit by a car, it happens often. You can come back tomorrow, if there aren’t any complications you can bring it home then.»  


«Ah, actually…» Seungyoun started, feeling weirdly uneasy. «I can’t keep it. Since I found it and it was injured, I just thought that I should at least try and save its life but that’s all», Seungyoun tried to give Seungwoo a confident smile, but he wasn’t sure that his smile was actually so confident. Seungwoo stared at him for a couple of seconds with a blank face before nodding.  


«Of course, it’s understandable. The cat isn’t microchipped so it’s most likely a stray cat, but we can’t keep it here at the clinic», Seungwoo explained, that big polite smile back on his face. «You should bring it to a cat shelter if you can’t keep it with you, just don’t leave it on the streets again. It’ll be fine in a shelter, since it’s very cute it’ll find a new family soon.»  


Seungyoun nodded slowly. Of course, since it was a stray cat, the only solution was to give it to a shelter that could take care of it and find a comfortable place where the cat could stay forever. It made perfectly sense. Seungyoun really couldn’t take the cat. He lived alone in a rooftop apartment that was incredibly small and constantly messy (although he loved his apartment, he decorated it really prettily, it looked like a bar). He had to stay out for too many hours a day because of work, his barista paycheck wasn’t exactly exceptional and the songs he sold to semi-unknown artists as music producer didn’t make him rich for sure. He was barely able to maintain himself, and a cat was expensive. His bank account was already crying bloody tears because of the expensive bill he had to pay for the cat’s recovery that night. A shelter was way more suitable; they could take care of the cat properly and pay for the vet bills.  


Seungyoun kept repeating this to himself countless times while he was on a taxi on his way home. The snow had stopped, but the streets were a complete mess, really slippery as well. He had the impression that had taken him hours to come back home; he was exhausted. Seungyoun kept telling himself that he should just forget the cat and go on with his life when he finally took a very hot shower to give sensation back to his feet and hands. Seungyoun kept saying in his head that having a cat was a bad idea even when he went to bed, but he couldn’t fall asleep.  


The truth was that Seungyoun’s life was studded with bad ideas. While he was holding the cat against his chest, the cat’s blood staining his hands and clothes, Seungyoun had this weird impression that there was a sort of connection between him and the cat. He was sure his brain was making this up, and it was just because he was the one who found the kitty on the street and took it to the vet. So an irrational part of him was adding feelings where it wasn’t necessary but, realistically, there was no reason for him to worry about a stray cat. Seungwoo said so as well, no need to worry about it.  


_"It’ll find a new family soon."_  


But still, the next day he had to go and get the cat at the clinic before bringing it to a shelter. He really didn’t want to see the cat again, he was pretty sure that seeing it a second time would make him do some stupid shit (like ending up keeping the cat anyway despite all the reasons why he shouldn’t). He wasn’t even that happy about the fact that he was the one obligated to bring it to a shelter. A part of him seriously hoped that Seungwoo could take care of it himself.  


It was late after work and Seungyoun, who was usually always smiley and positive, that night had the most sour mood of the century, but he was still trying to hide it and act like it was nothing… like always. He had to stop by an animal shop to get a cat carrier. He couldn’t just go around the city with a cat in his arms. While looking around the shop, he started to make quick calculations in his head. A lot of things were necessary when a person decided to get a pet: food, bowls, litter, bedding, toys… it was all expensive. His attention fell on a pretty cat collar with a tiny bell. He sighed: he would’ve bought that too.  


When he eventually reached the vet clinic and got inside, the tall guy with the big smile was there, talking to an old lady with a loud tiny dog. Seungwoo looked up in his direction and smiled. He ended his conversation with the old lady and politely accompanied her at the exit door with a kindness that the old lady was obviously loving, it took her a while to finally leave. Seungyoun didn’t try to repress an amused smile when Seungwoo finally turned his attention to him.  


«Good evening. Sorry for making you wait,» Seungwoo apologized and Seungyoun’s smile became even broader.  


«Don’t worry. I see you’re very popular,» he joked but Seungwoo didn’t seem particularly amused.  


«Please follow me. The kitty -it’s a male, anyway- is fine now. He needed some stitches but now he’s okay. The results of the exams were all negative so he’s in perfect health,» Seungwoo explained while leading Seungyoun in the backroom where the cat was kept and Seungyoun wondered why he suddenly felt less nervous knowing that the cat was fine.  


The pretty white kitty was still sleeping inside a relatively spacious cage in a room filled with other cages that hosted various pets who obviously needed more care. Seeing it like that, under the bright and aseptic light of the clinic, Seungyoun thought that the cat looked even whiter and smaller than the night before and that weird connection that he thought he had with the cat tugged at his chest. He was really a sensitive idiot.  


«It’s still sleeping,» Seungwoo said, breaking the silence. «It has been sleeping ever since you brought it here last night.»  


Seungyoun looked at Seungwoo with wide eyes, worried. «Why is he sleeping so much?»  


«Like I said, he doesn’t seem to have any kind of problem, he’s just sleeping… like he’s under a spell. It’s probably an after effect of anesthesia, though.»  


So was it a positive thing or not? It honestly sounded worrisome. Seungyoun had no idea on how to take this piece of information. The vet’s choice of words was kind of odd too in his opinion, but the way Seungwoo was now looking at him with that big smile didn’t seem positive at all.  


«So, have you decided to bring it to a shelter?» Seungwoo asked him really casually. Seungyoun opened his mouth to say “yes”. He really did. But when he looked up, he saw that the cat was finally awake for the first time since Seungyoun had found it, and its blue eyes were staring straight into his soul. He felt almost moved for some reason, maybe because he was really glad that the cat was alive.  


«Oh, he’s awake,» Seungwoo chirped happily. «I’m going to do a quick check up before the discharge.»  


Next thing he knew, Seungyoun was out of the clinic with his boots deep in the fresh snow from the previous night and a sleepy white cat curled up inside the cat carrier that he had bought a while ago. It was time to go home.

***

Seungyoun thought he really had to bring the cat to a cat shelter the next day, but it was already too late into the night to do anything. All he could do was search online for a shelter. There was one close to his apartment. Maybe, in the future, he could stop by the shelter from time to time to say hi to the cat.  


The kitty kept being incredibly lethargic even at home. Seungyoun opened the cat carrier and waited patiently for the cat to get out of it on its own. Actually he didn’t have to wait for long; the cat got up after a few seconds and, on its three good legs, it started to look around the house very diligently, like an inspection. Crouched down in a corner of the kitchen, Seungyoun observed from afar the moves of the kitty: the last thing he wanted was to scare it off. He probably didn’t have to worry too much, especially considering that the cat, without a second thought, entered his bedroom and jumped onto his bed, eventually falling asleep in the middle of his pillow.  


«Yah, kitty, you can’t sleep on the bed! Get down!» he tried to sound firm, but the cat ignored him completely. Fine. The cat was still recovering, anyway, and it looked so cute and pitiful that he didn’t have the heart to move it away. It was just a night; he probably could stand it.  


For the whole night the cat didn’t touch the cat food that Seungyoun had bought and prepared for it or the improvised litter that Seungyoun had set up in a corner. It just kept sleeping.  


Laying on the bed in the most uncomfortable way possible because the cat was occupying his pillow, Seungyoun was trying hard not to bother its sleep. He stared at the ceiling. He couldn’t fall asleep; he was feeling anxious. From time to time, he touched the kitty to make sure it was still alive. He couldn’t shake off this sense of uneasiness, despite Seungwoo’s reassurances; he felt like there was something off with the cat. After a while, he fell into a tormented sleep with a lot of nonsense dreams. There was a dream in which the cat wasn't an actual cat but was a car! And the car tried to run Seungyoun over on that same street where he had found the injured kitty.  


The next day, when he woke up, the cat wasn’t on the pillow anymore. Actually, his head was now on the pillow, but he couldn’t remember when the cat moved away and he ended up claiming the pillow for himself. He got up as fast as he could from the bed, looking for the cat. Eventually he found it in the kitchen: it was sitting on the kitchen counter and was looking attentively at something out of the window… actually… Seungyoun thought for a moment that his eyes were pulling a prank on him… was that an owl outside of the kitchen window?! An owl in Seoul? Was that even possible? Before Seungyoun’s sleepy brain could register what was happening, the owl flew away. Maybe he had some sort of hallucination. When the cat noticed Seungyoun’s presence in the room, it jumped down from the counter and stared at Seungyoun before meowing. Seungyoun immediately forgot about the owl (it must have been a hallucination because the thought of an owl in Seoul during the day time sounded absolutely ridiculous) and smiled brightly at the cat: it meowed! He crunched down in front of the cat and carefully patted its head.  


«Hi, cat. Aren’t you hungry? You didn’t eat anything,» he said, recalling that the cat food was still untouched when he had entered the kitchen a few moments ago. The cat moved away from Seungyoun’s touch. It didn’t seem to like physical contact that much.  


«Alright, let’s change the medication,» Seungyoun said, grabbing the cat and holding it in his arms. The cat let out a surprised meow and started to wriggle fervently to free himself from Seungyoun’s hold. It definitely didn’t like physical contact. But Seungyoun wasn’t going to give up, Seungwoo told him to change the medication on the cat’s leg once a day to prevent infections, so he had to do what it was supposed to be done. He dropped himself on the couch with still the cat moving like crazy in his arms.  


«Eh, calm down. I’m not going to hurt you. I want to help you! You don’t want to lose your leg, do you?» he said, as if the cat could even answer him, but nevertheless that seemed to calm the cat down a bit. Seungyoun suspected that the kitty was just too weak and its leg was hurting too much to keep fighting against him. After a lot of hissing and scratches, Seungyoun finally changed the medication following the directions that Seungwoo provided him. Now the cat’s leg was nicely banded and clean; the cat seemed relieved, too. Seungyoun smiled brightly at the kitty once again. «See? I told you.»  


But the cat just jumped down the couch and then it kept staring at the kitchen window. Maybe even the cat was still fascinated by that bird that was out of the window a while ago. Anyway, whatever it was, it didn’t come back but the cat kept on waiting.

***

Seungyoun got out of work late again that evening. Lately he was collecting an incredible amount of extra hours of work at the café, so he had less time to spend at the production studio. He couldn’t even complain, since he needed the extra money that came with it. In the last period his financial situation had worsened since when his landlord had decided all on his own to increase the monthly rent and Seungyoun sometimes felt suffocating. His humor was down again (it was happening way too frequently), and he was starting to wonder what he was even living for, if he even had to neglect music in order to survive. On his way home he stopped by the pet shop to buy some more food for the cat. It was obvious that it was going to stay for a while.  


When he reached home, he was about to enter in the password to open the front door when he suddenly heard some voices from inside his apartment. His blood froze in his veins. Was there someone inside? Maybe his mom came to visit him without telling him beforehand (it wouldn’t be the first time), but who was she talking to? Something was definitely off. He opened the door extra carefully, only to realize that the voices that he heard came from the TV. He definitely didn’t turn the TV on that morning (actually, sometimes he even forgot that he had a television in the first place), but what he saw next left him even more shocked. The cat was watching the TV sitting on the couch. For a moment, as soon as he stepped inside, he was sure that his eyes caught a glimpse of the cat wearing a pair of round glasses while watching the TV, but then he realized the cat had nothing on its small face, and yet… what was wrong with him that day? He was definitely hallucinating.  


«Yah, kitty… When did you learn to turn the TV on?» he asked, getting closer to the couch and staring at the TV with extreme fascination. As absurd as it sounded, the cat was watching the news. Apparently there had been a big explosion somewhere in the Gyeonggi province, but the cause was still unknown. The cat was watching really attentively. Seungyoun found it totally endearing.  


He walked around the apartment to make sure that everything was the way he had left it before going out. And it was. Apparently no one had come in while he was outside, so the cat had actually turned on the TV all on its own. He must have stepped on the TV remote. It could happen, he guessed. Anyway, the bowl where he had left the cat food was now empty, so the kitty must have eaten while he was at work. His mood suddenly got better. So he poured more food in the bowl, walked towards the cat that was still sitting on the couch and patted its head. «Good kitty!»  


His change of humor demanded some music, ramen and soju. After a shower and a change of clothes, Seungyoun came back to the living room where the kitty was still watching the news with a big smile on his lips. He turned the TV off (earning a pissed meow from the cat) and turned the stereo on, instead. Music filled the apartment. But when he opened the kitchen cupboard, expecting to find two packs of instant ramen and found just one instead, he knew something was off for real, and it wasn’t just an impression. He was completely sure that last night there were still two untouched cups of ramen in the kitchen. He slowly turned his head to look at the cat, like only the cat could have done that… like stealing and cooking a cup of ramen. He was going crazy. Shaking his head, Seungyoun sent a text to his best friend Hangyul, asking him if by any chance he came over while he was at work to take a pack of ramen and turn the TV on. It didn’t matter how absurd that could have sounded, Hangyul was used to Seungyoun’s absurdity. The reply came a couple of minutes later, “Hyung, are you crazy? Why would I do that? Are you drunk?”  


Right, why would Hangyul do that? “Nevermind,” he replied back. He definitely needed a drink.  


Sitting on the couch next to the cat, Seungyoun ate his well deserved cup of ramen with some side dishes his mom had prepared for him and tried to finish the lyrics of a new song that he was working on recently. Seungyoun’s relationship with music was rather complicated. After training for a few years in an entertainment company, the group he was supposed to debut in definitely fell through and no one could guarantee him another chance to debut anytime soon. Seungyoun left the company when he felt already too old to start all over again as a trainee in another agency. He then decided to focus on producing music to make a name for himself. He started to get some gigs and to build a vast web of connections thanks to his producer friends and the people who were in the business that he had met during his trainee days. Seungyoun had a small public of people who looked forward to his next cover song on YouTube, too, but not enough. Never enough, to him. Every day he couldn’t shake off the feeling that everything was slowly falling apart. His life wasn’t leading him anywhere. But he kept going anyway. Writing always relaxed him a lot when he was stressed, and so did soju.  


He was a social butterfly and he hated drinking alone, but sometimes he needed it. A couple of glasses of soju became three and then four and five and counting and now he was pretty sure to be drunk: he couldn’t hold alcohol at all. He started to sing using the bottle of soju as microphone and then he took a very embarrassing selfie that he subsequently uploaded on Instagram without any shame. He was about to pour himself another glass of soju when he felt the little paw of the cat on his hand. It was like the cat was trying to stop him from getting wasted. It was like the cat knew he would have ended up regretting it the next morning. He patted the cat, smiling.  


«Whaaaaa, kitty! So pretty! Have you ever seen a prettier cat? You know what, I’m going to keep you!» he said happily, loudly, like the cat could actually understand him. And it looked like it could understand for real.  


«I should give you a name! What about Forest?!» he cheered. The cat looked disgusted and meowed loudly. Seungyoun’s foggy brain interpreted it as an agreement. It was a silly idea, but his artist name was WOODZ and he always liked the idea to use “Forest” as name for his fans (too bad he currently wasn’t in the place to be considered a singer and to have fans). He was so happy that he smooched the head of the cat, who suddenly froze and whose pupils grew bigger. Seungyoun got a painful scratch on his arm in return. That cat definitely didn’t like smooches. Instead of getting pissed, Seungyoun started laughing. He laughed so much that he started crying silently. Yet he wasn’t happy. At all. And the worst part was that he felt like he couldn’t show that part of him to anyone. He felt alone and his life felt meaningless.  


But then the cat’s paw was on his hand again with a soft meow, and he felt comforted. He wasn’t completely alone, after all.

***

«Why would you upload that ugly photo? You make your mother sad! I gave birth to such a handsome son!»

Seungyoun laughed at that. He was talking to his mom on the phone while he was on his way home after work. He hadn’t heard from her in a while, but honestly there were times where he forgot that his mom kept herself updated with anything concerning Seungyoun’s life, even the silly photos he uploaded on Instagram.

«Sorry, mom, I was just having fun! Don’t get angry,» he chirped, making his mom giggle.

«I’m going to forgive you just because you’re my favorite son,» she answered, with amusement in her voice.

«I thought I was your only son.»

«Indeed.»

Now it was Seungyoun’s turn to giggle, but then he stopped walking down the street when he found himself in front of the pet shop where he usually bought necessities for Forest.  


«Oh, mom, do you know what’s new? I’ve adopted a cat,» he announced, suddenly remembering that he still had to inform his mom about Forest. As he walked inside the pet shop, he could hear his mom let out a gasp for the surprise over the phone.  


«You? A cat? Since when?» she asked, now curious. Seungyoun kept wandering around the shop until he saw it: the pretty cat collar with the tiny bell he saw the first time he went there. He was going to buy it for Forest. After the last night he had decided to just keep the cat. Despite the fact that Forest had to stay home alone for too many hours (but he seemed to do well anyway) and that Seungyoun was still pretty much poor, he liked having the pet around, although a lot of weird things had happened since Forest appeared in his life.  


«Uh, just a couple of days ago. I found it injured on the street and I took it to a vet but somehow… I’ve decided to keep it.»  


«Why do you never tell me the important things?! Ah, I want to see it! Is it cute?»  


«Yeah, he’s really pretty. I’m going to send you some photos,» he said, but then he realized that he didn’t have even a single picture of Forest on his phone. He never thought of taking pictures of him before for some reason, but it was weird because he usually took a lot of photos. He carried his camera everywhere. He probably thought of it as something just temporary until that moment. It felt suddenly good to have something permanent in his life. So, while he was still at the pet shop, he bought everything he needed, since Forest was certainly going to stay forever; proper litter, a variety of food, a bed and, among other things, the collar. He was almost happy. His bank account, however, kept crying blood, but he felt almost happy anyway.  


He rushed home because he couldn’t wait to show Forest everything he had bought. When he came home, he found Forest sound asleep on his bed pillow. It was a habit that Seungyoun definitely needed to correct before it was too late, but in that moment he couldn’t care less.  


«Forest-yah, look at this!» Seungyoun exclaimed excitedly, dropping all the shopping bags on the bed. Then he noticed that the bed covers were quite messy, like something bigger than just a cat had slept there, but he didn’t think about it that much at first.  


Forest woke up from its nap and looked up at Seungyoun, then it focused all its attention on the things that Seungyoun had bought. Seungyoun showed Forest everything, as if the cat could give him an opinion on his purchases, then he took out of the bag the pretty collar, a shiny light blue one.  


«Ta-daan! It’s pretty, isn’t it? Only pretty things for my pretty cat,» he hummed happily, trying to put the collar on Forest, who was hissing and meowing lowly. Forest didn’t like it.  


«Why?! It looks great on you! And it’s expensive!» Seungyoun protested, but it was useless anyway. After a lot of fighting and a decent amount of scratches on Seungyoun’s hands, eventually Forest gave up. Now the pretty collar was shining around its fluffy neck. Forest’s tail was wiggling fervently, obviously pissed off.  


«Woah, so pretty. It really suits you! Don’t move, I’m going to take some pictures!» Seungyoun smiled happily, getting up from the bed to grab his phone left in the pocket of his jacket, but then he looked around his room and noticed that the things over his desk weren’t in the usual order, like someone had searched for something among his things and then tried to put everything like it was before but without being able to do a perfect job. He kept having this feeling that something was off but he couldn’t exactly tell what. He just told himself he probably had moved things the night before when he was drunk but he couldn’t remember.  


Trying to shake that bad feeling off him, Seungyoun went back to the bed, ready to take some photos of Forest to send to his mom.  


At first Forest looked quite pissed, but after a while it started to look like the cat was enjoying the attention. He started to subtly pose for the camera, too. Seungyoun put his phone in front of Forest to show all the photos and the cat would meow every time he particularly liked one. Seungyoun was totally shocked; that cat was just too smart and weird to be a common cat. Anyway, his mom seemed to appreciate as well, and Seungyoun’s life felt all of sudden a little better, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again, thank you so much for reading so far :)! I hope you liked this first chapter! If you did, please stay tuned because I'm going to post more chapters soon! For everyone interested, I'm leaving here my twitter username too: @seokinthewoodz <3  
> Bye!


	2. Chapter 2

A lot of weird things kept happening over the week. Food missing from the fridge or cupboard, Seungyoun found things where they weren’t supposed to be, he often caught Forest watching the news on TV, and one day he came home from work to see Forest sitting on the kitchen table and a weird newspaper with moving images -Seungyoun was completely sure he actually saw the photos moving on their own!- opened in front of the cat. But it was just a second, then the newspaper wasn’t there anymore and Forest was just a normal cat sitting on the table. Seungyoun started to become paranoid; he would check under his bed and in every single place that could contain a human being every now and then in order to see if some psychopath was living secretly in his house. He couldn’t ignore this feeling that there was another person there, but actually it was just Forest, a cat. And Forest wasn’t just a common cat, Seungyoun was aware of this, but it’s not like it could make food disappear or move objects on its own. Everything was weird, but he didn’t want to seem crazy, so he just kept it to himself.  


Despite all the weird things that kept happening, Seungyoun’s mood was finally improving. Now he had a reason to work at the café and at the production studio and come home relatively early, without spending the night somewhere with his composer friends -that he jokingly called “MOLA Crew”- or with Hangyul’s group of friends or with whoever was available for a fun time. Actually, he didn’t even get the chance to drink lately. Being responsible for a living creature made him feel more active, too. He had to clean after the cat, providing him fresh food and water, he had to teach him the rules of the house -that the cat still kept ignoring- and make sure that its leg was healing. Most importantly, he liked spending time with the cat. It was a weird creature, even too smart for being a common cat, but it was also funny. They spent their time together lying on the couch, under a fluffy cover, watching dramas on TV and then they would share some food. At first he yelled after Forest for eating stuff that was meant for humans only, but the cat seemed to enjoy the human food too much to give any relevance to Seungyoun’s continue scolding.  


He officially introduced Forest to his mom, too. She showed up at Seungyoun’s door on his day off from work. She came over way too early in the morning, unannounced, and carrying an incredible amount of side dishes and some of Seungyoun’s favorite sweets. Of course Seungyoun scolded her (with fondness) because she carried all those heavy bags on her own, without telling him beforehand, who would have surely come to her house to take the food personally, or at least would have helped her to carry the bags. And he was a grown up man, she didn’t have to worry about him or cook for him, but of course she didn’t care and it wasn’t something she wanted to hear, anyway. She already couldn’t stand the fact Seungyoun refused to accept any kind of financial support from her, she would never allow him to refuse food as well. She looked so happy to see him, like she would die for him, so proud of her pretty son, her smile was so wide and bright for him, that Seungyoun just hugged her tightly and told her he missed her. She was the director of a traveling agency and she worked all day, Seungyoun was always busy as well, so sometimes they didn’t see each other for a long time. And then Seungyoun showed her the cat, that was sleeping on the couch. Forest let her pat its head for a good ten minutes while she kept saying, in admiration, how pretty the cat was. When Seungyoun sensed that the amount of patting and compliments was going overboard, he took her out for breakfast at her favorite café. It was the least he could do for his mom.  


Seungyoun’s mom wasn’t the only one to come by. Seungyoun had a lot of friends, after all. But every time someone walked inside the apartment, Forest would just hide somewhere and, no matter how much Seungyoun kept looking for it and calling its name, Forest just refused to come out of its hiding place and to meet Seungyoun’s friends. At some point the people around Seungyoun started to question whether he actually had a cat or it was just an imaginary pet, and it became an inside joke. Not that he cared, anyway. Seungyoun just laughed it off every time some of his friend brought up his “invisible cat”. Forest was very much real and Seungyoun couldn’t be more glad to have the tiny creature in his life. Still, he wanted Forest to meet at least Hangyul, since he was his closest friend.  


So, a night that Seungyoun came back home half-drunk with Hangyul next to him, he literally ran after Forest to catch it in his arms before the cat could hide itself once again. Forest could still walk only on three legs, so it wasn’t that fast.  


«Got you!» Seungyoun chirped loudly, and placed a big kiss on Forest’s soft head. The cat was wriggling furiously in its owner’s arms, trying to free itself from that unrequested cuddle despite its injured leg still being out of service. Seungyoun ignored the cat’s meows and kept giving it affectionate smooches just to annoy it further.  


«Woah, so your famous cat exists for real. it’s really cute. Is it a purebred?» Hangyul asked, getting closer and carefully scratching the cat’s neck. He immediately retracted his hand once the cat threatened him with a low meow.  


«I have no idea, but he’s a model cat, I should bring him to auditions for cat food CFs,» Seungyoun said, fondly, kissing the cat once again, who apparently had enough of it, because Seungyoun earned his millionth scratch of the week.  


«Yah, just let it go already. It obviously hates you,» Hangyul mocked the other with a small laugh.  


«Nope! Forest loves me very much! We will grow old together!» Seungyoun lamented in a half-drunk slur, putting extreme effort into showing affection to the small pet that was fighting against his love. Seungyoun let out a loud protest when finally Forest freed itself and ran away from him, hiding somewhere. Hangyul was just laughing at Seungyoun with extreme joy, as if seeing him suffer was the best thing that could ever happen in the universe. Seungyoun started to do a dumb face and to laugh with a dumb voice, proof he was definitely not that sober, and their next conversation became a giggling mess.  


Seungyoun and Hangyul first met when they were both trainees at the same company. Actually, they were supposed to debut together in the same group, but when their debut got cancelled all of a sudden, the both of them left the company; Hangyul signed up with another agency and was now working as a back-up dancer, while Seungyoun preferred to do work individually, despite all the times Hangyul told him to just go to other auditions in order not to waste his outstanding talent in singing, rapping and dancing. Actually, Seungyoun found Hangyul very cute since the first time the two of them met. Hangyul looked way older than his real age, so Seungyoun started to talk to him with formal speech and to address him as “hyung”, making Hangyul extremely frustrated but also amused by the whole misunderstanding. The two of them became friends immediately, they had the same sense of the humor and their personalities matched pretty well, it was funny and comfortable having Hangyul around and Seungyoun wasn’t modest enough to ignore how obviously Hangyul looked up at him as a sort of role model. Or maybe even more than that. Seungyoun couldn’t count all the time his friend Jimin joked about Hangyul having the biggest crush of the century on Seungyoun, but he didn’t care. He felt comfortable and relaxed with Hangyul around and the last thing he wanted was to ruin their friendship by putting too many thoughts and feelings where it wasn’t necessary.  


After another round of beers, they turned on an Instagram live. Although it was pretty late, if they were lucky, around two hundred people would’ve tuned in. It didn’t matter how many people were watching, it was purely for fun.  


«Guys, first of all. I’m not drunk,» Seungyoun announced when a good amount of people started to enter the live streaming and started to ask him if he was drunk because he was talking like he was an old TV show host.  


«He is. And he just drank two cans of beer,» Hangyul giggled, earning a playful punch from Seungyoun, who denied again any accusation.  


«”Cho Seungyoun, where is your cat?”» Seungyoun read a comment out loud while they were playing some songs. «Good question. He’s probably watching TV right now.»  


«The cat is watching TV?» Hangyul asked ironically with a half smile, probably thinking it was a joke because when he got up from where they were sitting in front of Seungyoun’s phone and saw that Forest was actually laying on the couch watching the TV, he looked almost impressed.  


«Yah, his cat is watching TV for real. Is that even normal?» he asked with an amused laugh. Seungyoun just mumbled «Eish, I told you Forest isn’t a normal cat,» while trying to read the comments that were passing by quickly. Hangyul imitated him, focusing on the comments, a soft song playing in the background. «”Do you want to eat ramen?”» Hangyul read a provocative message from a viewer in a whisper, then he turned his head towards Seungyoun and asked more clearly: «Do you want to eat ramen?» [Author note: it’s the Korean equivalent of “Netflix and chill” so basically an invitation for romantic cuddles and eventually sex.]  


Seungyoun looked at Hangyul as well and they stared at each other for a while. They both knew perfectly the implications behind those words, the subtle invitation, and Seungyoun didn’t know how to react because Hangyul looked and sounded quite serious. Their faces were so close that they could even easily kiss, if they wanted to. Of course, they would never do that during an Instagram live with people watching them. Not even in private, because no matter how nice and handsome Hangyul was, Seungyoun did want to eat ramen (he hadn’t had an actual date in a long time), but not with him. They just laughed it off as a joke and went on with the live like nothing had happened at all.  


Later that night, when Seungyoun was about to go to sleep after Hangyul had left, he noticed that Forest wasn’t occupying the pillow as his usual. Now Seungyoun was so used to sleep without a pillow -because it became Forest’s property-, that the idea of sleeping alone on the bed made him feel weird. He walked around the apartment to find the cat curled up in the cat-bed that Seungyoun had bought for him days ago and that Forest had never used once before.  


«Yah, what are you doing here? Don’t you want to sleep with me tonight?» Seungyoun asked him, scratching the cat’s head. Forest just ignored him. «Eish… don’t tell me you’re angry because I kissed you earlier?» Still no reaction from the cat. Seungyoun sighed. «Okay, got it. I won’t do that anymore. Let’s be friends again,» he said, grabbing the cat’s good paw and shaking it a bit, like they were making an agreement. Forest kept ignoring him. «Oh, come oooon∼! Let’s be friends again! Let’s go to sleep! You can have my pillow without complaints!» Seungyoun whined, still shaking the cat’s paw to get its attention. After a while, Forest couldn’t ignore the other’s insistence anymore, he was starting to be too noisy. It got up from the cat-bed and followed Seungyoun to his bedroom. This time, though, Forest didn’t take the pillow, despite Seungyoun being ready to sleep without one once again. Instead, he curled up against Seungyoun’s side, and the two of them kept on sleeping like that every night.  


***  


It was another snowy night when the catastrophe happened. Seungyoun just got home from work, when the doorbell suddenly rang. He wondered who could even visit him at that ungodly hour, but when he asked who it was through the door, he was surprised to know it was the maintenance man. He opened the front door to find an old man he had never seen before, smiling at him and showing his uneven teeth.  


«Eish, good evening, young man. Sorry to bother you at this hour, but your neighbor downstairs has a huge humid stain on her ceiling and it might depend on some water leak from your hydraulic system. May I come in to check?»  


Seungyoun was extremely confused. First of all, it was the first time that someone addressed to him as “young man” so casually, it sounded odd. Second, his landlord and the nice old lady downstairs didn’t inform him of anything, and they were people who loved to inform others of what was going on. Seungyoun guessed that maybe the leak was something recent and the old lady just thought to ask the maintenance man to check immediately. It could be. Seungyoun had the tendency to trust people, so he let the man in with a smile and a «Sure».  


Seungyoun closed the front door and turned towards the man, who was now standing still in the middle of the living room, looking around. Something was off with him, but Seungyoun couldn’t exactly point out what.  


«Wooseok-ah, are you here? It’s Jinhyuk,» the man said, raising his voice, like he was trying to make himself be heard from someone else in the apartment. Before Seungyoun could open his mouth to ask what the hell was going on, the old maintenance man in front of him just… became way taller, slimmer and younger. His appearance changed completely in a second. The maintenance man just wasn’t the maintenance man anymore, but in his place there was a handsome young man, instead, around Seungyoun’s age, with dark grey hair.  


Seungyoun was completely terrified. He had no idea of what he had just witnessed but it was something out of this world, out of rules of nature, out of normal. His legs started to tremble and he could feel his stomach becoming a block of ice. He got goose dumps all over his body and tears formed in his eyes. He had never felt like that before, not even the first time he did bungee jumping, or the first time he rode a scary rollercoaster when he was still a kid. He felt the need to escape. He needed to run away. He couldn’t move a single muscle or let out a scream out of fear, but he glanced at the exit door. He had to run. Just when he was trying to regain control over his body, something even more shocking happened. He saw Forest scamper towards them and in a moment Forest wasn’t Forest anymore either. Instead of him there was an incredibly pretty boy, with big beautiful eyes, a small face and fair skin. He looked like a deer, or a doll. His clothes were weird and his right arm was bended, like he was injured. Forest was injured in that exact same place, too. The weirdest part was that the shining light-blue collar that Seungyoun had bought for Forest, was now around the pretty boy’s neck. It just couldn’t be real. Seungyoun’s legs couldn’t hold him up anymore, so he just fell on the floor with a loud whimper. He felt like throwing up.  


«Wooseok-ah,» the tall guy said with an enormous toothy smile on his face and teary eyes, then proceeded to hug the pretty boy, tightly. The hug looked so intimated, like a hug between two lovers who hadn’t seen each other in a long time, that if Seungyoun wasn’t as shocked and scared as he was in that moment, he would’ve probably felt the urge to look away.  


«Are you okay?» the tall guy asked the other. Concern was all over his face now. The pretty boy, whose name apparently was ‘Wooseok’, just nodded with a soft smile. «I’m fine.»  


«I’m sorry about coming so late but it’s a complete mess at the Ministry now, the owl that Han Seungwoo sent us almost got intercepted by Sojinhang’s followers. That monster has spies within the Ministry as well and he’s looking for you everywhere, he’s starting to attack Muggles, too. We had to take some extra countermeasures to make sure he won’t find out where you’re hiding right now. We released an article on the newspaper saying you’re officially missing as well,» the tall guy explained and Seungyoun couldn’t understand a single word he said, but at that point he didn’t even want to know what the fuck was going on anymore, he just wanted to escape as quickly as he could in order to call the police on those two crazy psychopaths. He slowly crawled backwards until his back bumped against the front door, and he was about to reach the doorknob to finally open the door and run out of the house, when the tall guy suddenly took out of nowhere a weird wood stick, pointed it at Seungyoun and exclaimed, «Petrificus Totalus!»  


Seungyoun felt his whole body become immobile and rigid, and in a moment he fell on the floor like he was an unanimated puppet. His brain was conscious, he just couldn’t move a muscle and not because of fear. It’s like he had become a statue. If only his body was still functioning, he was sure that he would have gotten a heart attack. He desperately wanted to scream but he couldn’t.  


«Yah, don’t use magic on the Muggle like you please. Remember that he is the one who saved my life,» he heard Wooseok say. Magic? Muggle? He saved that guy’s life? No, he saved Forest’s life, not his. Seungyoun’s brain was a complete mess, one hundred thoughts crossed his mind and none of those made actual sense or could be humanly possible.  


«I’m sorry, but we can’t have the Muggle running around and screaming like crazy that he saw his cat turning into a human, right?» the tall guy -Jinhyuk?- retorted, then it was Wooseok’s voice again, «Even if he does, the other Muggles will just think he has gone insane. Free him.»  


«Before that, let me talk. I have orders from the Ministry of Magic for you. They want that you keep hiding yourself here among the Muggles. It’s the safest place for now.»  


«What do you mean I have to keep hiding? I can’t stay here, I can’t let Sojinhang kill more people because of me. It’s me who he wants, right? Just let me confront him. I can do it,» Wooseok’s voice was firm and calm, full of confidence, like nothing could bother him, and in the meantime Seungyoun’s brain tried to register another information. They wanted Wooseok to stay… stay where? “Here”? Did they mean Seungyoun’s apartment?  


«Don’t be stupid! If what Han Seungwoo told us in his letter is true, then your magic almost disappeared completely because of the Bulgae’s bite, you’re weak and your wand got destroyed in the fight. How do you think you can even stand a chance against Sojinhang? You’ll get killed in a second. You’re not even in the condition to disapparate from here on your own,» Jinhyuk’s voice got higher, he sounded pissed, almost angry.  


«You’re talking like I’m useless. I’m the best Auror the Ministry has,» Wooseok said, without losing his cool.  


«Exactly because you’re not useless and we all need you that the Ministry is desperately trying to protect you!» Now Jinhyuk sounded actually angry and Seungyoun almost feared that the two could start fighting any moment and he definitely didn’t want to be involved in any of that. Wooseok, on the other hand, sounded completely unbothered by Jinhyuk’s change of tone. «Even if I don’t fight, I can still help you to organize the Auror team and the battle strategies,» he said and Seungyoun could hear Jinhyuk let out a sigh out of frustration, but when he spoke again, his voice was calm.  


«You can’t do that while you’re away from the Auror headquarters and, once you step out of here, Sojinhang’s followers will find you and kill you. I told you, he has spies everywhere, especially within the Ministry. Also, I know you. You don’t know how to stay still.» Seungyoun was pretty sure that Jinhyuk said the last sentence with a smile on his lips, his words were full of fondness. After that, a long silence fell between the two. Apparently Wooseok didn’t know how to answer to that. Or maybe he was just thinking on what to say next.  


«Just keep hiding. It’s an order, Wooseok-ah,» Jinhyuk eventually said. Despite being an order, he said that like it took him a lot of effort to pronounce those words. Another moment of silence, then Wooseok spoke again, «What about the Muggle? Does the Ministry want me to keep pretending I’m just his pet?»  


«Exactly. I’m going to obliviate him before leaving. Just stay in your cat form from now on.» Seungyoun’s senses started to tingle again: obliviate? What the heck that crazy person wanted to do to him? It didn’t sound reassuring at all.  


«We can’t take advantage of that Muggle’s kindness and ignorance any further. He has nothing to do with us,» Wooseok retorted and Seungyoun felt slightly offended at being called ignorant. But indeed he was. He had no idea of what was going on or what those two were talking about. He hated not knowing. And he hated the fact they kept calling him a Muggle, it sounded like an insult.  


«I understand your point of view, but he won’t even remember about this; he’ll keep having his beloved pet for some other time while you’ll be safe. It’s a win-win situation,» Jinhyuk tried to reassure the other, but Seungyoun, from the corner of his eyes, could see Wooseok snatching that wood thingy from the taller one’s hand and pointing it at Seungyoun, saying, «Finite Incantatem.»  


After that Seungyoun could somehow move again, but only his arms and head, good part of his body was still completely blocked. Jinhyuk snorted loudly.  


«See, Wooseok-ah? Your magic is still pretty much inexistent. You couldn’t even successfully perform a basic spell,» he commented, mockery in his voice, getting his wood thingy back. A grimace appeared on Wooseok’s pretty face, followed by a «Shut up.»  


Seungyoun decided that it was time for him to take control of the situation. He couldn’t just let those two psychos do any other weird stuff to him. So, since the bottom half of his body was paralyzed and he couldn’t run, he decided it was time to use his arms. He grabbed whatever was around him -an umbrella, his shoes left near the front door…- and started to throw it at Jinhyuk and Wooseok, who avoided the flying objects with ease.  


«Who the fuck are you?! What did you do to me?! Why can’t I move?! I’m going to call the police on you motherfuckers!» Seungyoun yelled, then he took a deep breath before screaming even louder, «AAAHHHH SOMEONE HELP M…»  


«Silencio!»  


And with that, Seungyoun couldn’t even scream anymore, his voice was gone. The situation was getting seriously tiring and ridiculous.  


«Sorry about that, you’re being loud. Also, my bad, we forgot to introduce ourselves. I’m Lee Jinhyuk, Wooseok’s Auror partner. And this is Kim Wooseok, he is… uh. Your cat, I guess?» Jinhyuk said, and he looked amused, while Wooseok didn’t seem to find the situation funny at all. He walked towards Seungyoun and crunched down next to him so that they could be at the same eye level.  


«The truth is that Jinhyuk and I are wizards. I got injured while fighting a very dangerous dark wizard and I was able to escape only by turning myself into my cat form and, luckily, you found me and took me to doctor Han Seungwoo. He helped me out a lot. He immediately recognized I’m an Animagus when he saw my wound. Ah! With Animagus I mean that I’m a wizard who can transform into an animal. Not all wizards can do that. Jinhyuk is special too, he’s Metamorphmagus, he can change his appearance as he pleases,» Wooseok explained with a small smile and then turned around to look at an amused Jinhyuk, whose hair became bright blue from the dark grey of before. Seungyoun’s face was probably showing all the shock that he was feeling in that moment -too much information altogether: Jinhyuk and Wooseok were wizards, they could change their appearances whenever they wanted and apparently the vet who was popular with the old ladies was a wizard as well? Since he could recognize Wooseok’s real nature… it was all too much to comprehend in a go-, because Jinhyuk laughed and pointed at him.  


«Don’t make that shocked face! You literally saw with your own eyes what you thought was your cat transform into a human being and you still doubt the fact we’re wizards? How do you explain all that has happened until now?»  


Seungyoun had to admit that Jinhyuk had a point. There was no other rational explanation that could give a sense to what had happened inside Seungyoun’s apartment in the last ten minutes. Those two were actually wizards, but it was hard to accept.  


«Cho Seungyoun-ssi,» Wooseok started again. «That’s your name, right? I’m really sorry for deceiving you. I’m not your cat. It’s not my intention to keep deceiving you, but I got an order from the Minister of Magic in person to remain in your house, and I shouldn’t disobey if I want to keep my Auror position, but I’m going to respect your decision anyway. Tell me to leave and I’ll do it,» Wooseok said, still that tiny smile on his lips, almost reassuring.  


«Wooseok-ah, don’t be stupid,» Jinhyuk warned the other. He looked extremely serious.  


«It’s okay. There are a lot of places where I can hide. The Ministry should provide me a hideout, not a common Muggle,» Wooseok retorted, almost sarcastic, before turning his attention to Seungyoun again. «We’re going to free you now, but please don’t scream and don’t do inconsiderate things, okay?»  


With a quick movement of the wand from Jinhyuk, Seungyoun could finally move and speak again, but he realized that he didn’t feel like doing anything anymore. He felt lifeless. Still, there was something that he wanted to know about Wooseok, «What has happened to you? Why do you need to hide?»  


«A mythological monster called [Bulgae](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgae) bit me. It’s like the creature ate away my powers. I feel always sleepy and weak. But I killed the Bulgae right after he bit me, so now its owner has one more reason for wanting me dead. If I go now, he’s probably going to find me and kill me,» Wooseok explained and it was kind of cool how he talked about the fact a vengeful guy was looking for him to kill him like it was something completely ordinary. Now that Seungyoun could look at Wooseok up close, he could see Forest in him. The shape of the eyes, especially, was the exact same, only the color was different. And at the realization that Forest -or the idea that Seungyoun had of him- was somehow still living inside of Wooseok, he started to fear for him and wanted his safety. He didn’t want to lose Forest.  


«Honestly, I still don’t understand anything of what you’re talking about, but…» Seungyoun started, before getting interrupted by Jinhyuk. «You don’t need to understand, don’t worry», he declared, and Seungyoun noticed that it sounded like he was having fun reciting a script. «Cho Seungyoun-ssi, the Ministry of Magic is really grateful to you for saving Wooseok’s life. We beg you to take good care of him until he won’t completely recover. Now I’m going to cancel all your memories from our meeting, you won’t remember anything of what has been done and said since I came here. Don’t worry, it’s completely painless and unharmful.»  


Jinhyuk walked towards Seungyoun and crunched down next to him, exactly like Wooseok had previously done. In the exact moment Jinhyuk lifted up his wand to perform the spell, however, Seungyoun’s hand suddenly grabbed the tip of the wand and held it tightly in his fist, so much that the wand looked on the verge of snapping in half. Wooseok, that until that moment had mostly only seen a version of Seungyoun that was smiley, nice and bright, thought that Seungyoun looked almost scary. His gaze was dark and sharp. Jinhyuk looked quite shocked as well at the other’s reaction.  


«If you dare to mess with my memories, I’m going to shove this damn thing up your ass,» Seungyoun threatened him, and he wasn’t joking. He hated being treated like a defenseless idiot or a puppet, and the idea that someone could penetrate his brain and cancel a part of his memories, freaked him out.  


Instead of getting angry at Seungyoun’s threat, Jinhyuk just started laughing; apparently he found it funny. Seungyoun ignored him, focusing his attention back on Wooseok.  


«You said that if you leave now, you will probably die. If you die, Forest will die, too, right?» Seungyoun asked, staring deeply into Wooseok’s eyes. The other nodded. «He will,» he answered, without hesitation.  


«Eish, you’re talking like Wooseok and his cat form are two separate things, when they aren’t! The man you see here is the same cat you saved, just his appearance is different,» Jinhyuk said, half amused and half irritated, like Seungyoun was just too stupid to understand. And he probably was, because to him, the pretty boy who looked like a deer in front of him, wasn’t Forest. He just couldn’t make those two images overlap, it was just too absurd. His head was aching like crazy, too, and he couldn’t put his thoughts in order. He was extremely confused. There were so many things that he wanted to ask, so many things that he didn’t know… Seungyoun bowed his head and passed his hands through his long hair emitting a frustrated lament. «Mom, I’m going crazy,» he said, sobbing. He was going crazy for real.  


«Are you okay?» he heard Wooseok ask him. Then he must have realized that the question was kind of stupid, because he added in a whisper, «Of course you’re not.»  


After some seconds of complete silence, Wooseok got up and Jinhyuk did the same. «Jinhyuk-ah, let’s just leave together.» Seungyoun had no idea of what hidden force inside of him made him do that, but before he could stop himself, his hand grabbed Wooseok’s wrist, preventing him from going anywhere. He didn’t want to let go of Forest and even less he wanted to go on in life knowing that Forest could be dead somewhere because he refused to help a weird wizard. Forest was his cat, the cat that he saved from death. If keeping Wooseok next to him meant that Forest could still be there, then it was fine to him.  


«Don’t go,» Seungyoun said, making the other two extremely surprised. Then Seungyoun’s gaze moved on the wand in Jinhyuk’s hand. «But if you do weird stuff to me using that thing again, I won’t stay still.»  


«I won’t use magic on you, I promise. Your memory will remain intact,» Wooseok reassured him, that tiny smile back on his thin lips.  


«Yah, are you really going to disobey to the Ministry’s orders? You’re not respecting the rules of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy!» Jinhyuk told the other wizard, obviously shocked by the unexpected turn the situation had taken.  


«It’s okay. The Muggle said that he doesn’t want us to obliviate him and I’m not going to do something against his will. He won’t tell anyone, right?» Wooseok answered, looking Seungyoun straight in the eyes. More than a question, it felt like an order.  


«I want you to know the fact we wizards exist is a matter of extreme secrecy to us, if you talk about it to other Muggles, I’m going to make you disappear,» Jinhyuk told Seungyoun, threatening. Seungyoun was naturally a chatty person, he liked to talk too much, but he was still considerate and sure as hell the last thing he wanted to share with others was the fact that the cat he picked up from the street was actually a human being, more specifically a wizard.  


«I won’t tell anyone; even if I did, no one would believe me, anyway. And what the hell is a “Muggle”?» Seungyoun asked, finally getting up from the floor. His legs were still unstable as heck and he felt physically devastated.  


«It’s what we call people without powers. People who can’t perform magic,» Wooseok explained. Seungyon just nodded and dragged his feet on the floor, trying not to lose his balance while moving towards his bedroom. From an external point of view, he probably looked ridiculous, but he really needed to lie down for a bit. When he finally threw himself on the bed, he heard someone close the door of his bedroom, leaving him alone. The door wasn’t completely shut, though, because he could still hear more or less clearly what the other two were saying on the other side.  


«Jinhyuk-ah, now it’s better if you leave,» he heard Wooseok say.  


«Take this potion, it will help you to recover sooner from the Bulgae’s bite. I went all the way to Jeju to find the Medimagus that could provide me this.»  


«Thank you.»  


«I’m going to come back soon with updates on the situation and a new wand for you. The Wand Maker is working really hard to fix your wand but it’s severely damaged. You’ll have to get used to a different one for a while. Better than staying in this dangerous situation without a wand to protect yourself. As you regain your powers, you’ll need it,» Jinhyuk said, and Seungyoun’s head suddenly was full of questions about wands, Wand Makers and Medimagus. It was probably better if he stopped wondering things.  


«It’s okay, don’t worry about me, focus on the mission,» Wooseok answered, but Jinhyuk had no intention to give up: «I’ll try to come here as often as I can. You’re my priority. Once this madness is over, I’m going to ask you to marry me.»  


A part of Seungyoun was surprised by that, but on the other hand he wasn’t. He definitely sensed that those two didn’t have a common relationship, and they didn’t seem just coworkers or friends either. He wondered if a marriage between two men was a normal procedure in the magic world. It definitely wasn’t in the South Korea that all Muggles knew. Seungyoun still felt slightly guilty. He didn’t want to stay there, listening to such a private conversation, but it’s not like he was eavesdropping because he wanted to, he just couldn’t avoid it! They were talking too loudly!  


«What idiotic stuff are you saying all of a sudden?» Wooseok asked, and he sounded almost annoyed. «Just go!»  


«I’m serious! Almost losing you made me realize some things... I’m going to ask for real! Think about it!» Jinhyuk chirped and, even from there, even without being able to see him, Seungyoun could tell that the wizard had his gigantic toothy smile back on his face.  


«Shut up!» Wooseok protested again, and after that a long silence fell between them. Seungyoun wondered if they were kissing or something. Then Jinhyuk’s voice broke the silence again, «You know the Ministry won’t be happy to know you didn’t follow the orders they gave you, right? Once they will find out that you refused to obliviate the Muggle and that he’s now aware of our existence, you’ll be in big trouble.»  


«I know, and that’s why you will help me to cover the truth. Tell them that you followed the orders. The Ministry trusts us more than most Aurors under their command, they will believe your words.»  


Seungyoun heard Jinhyuk let out a brief laugh, in disbelief. «Are you seriously asking me to deceive the Ministry and to break the rules? Is this really you, the Kim Wooseok I know? Did you injury your head, too?»  


«He’s a good guy, Jinhyuk-ah. I trust him. And I told you already not to worry about me, I can take care of myself,» Wooseok said, but, honestly speaking, Seungyoun didn’t know how to feel about the fact Wooseok was actually giving him his complete trust. The wizard really believed that Seungyoun wouldn’t try to harm him or expose the whole magic community. He was afraid that it could become a big responsibility.  


«It doesn’t look like it after all the mess you’ve caused, but alright,» Jinhyuk mocked the other. He could hear some shuffles and a giggles, then Wooseok’s voice again, «Just disapparate from here before I make you disappear for real.»

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone!  
> Thank you for reading this second chapter, too, and very special thanks to whoever was so kind to leave a kudo and a comment on the first chapter! I appreciated it A LOT! <3  
> Anyway, if you want to know what a Bulgae is, just click on the name the first time it gets mentioned in the fic, you'll be directed to the Wikipedia page dedicated to this Korean mythological creature!  
> I don't know when I'll update, I don't want to post everything i've written so far too soon, so... please, as always, stay tuned!  
> Bye!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!  
> I'm really sorry for posting such a short chapter this time around but I really couldn't avoid it! The truth is that dividing the whole story in chapters is getting way more difficult than predicted lmao. I felt like posting a 10k words chapter was too much, so... ahahahah.  
> Nothing much happens this time either but I hope you'll still enjoy this mini-chapter!

During the following night, Seungyoun couldn’t close his eyes. The idea of having a stranger in his house -and not a common person but a _wizard_ \- made him feel incredibly uneasy. It was still hard to believe that what he had seen with his own eyes and felt on his own skin was real, that _Magic_ with the capital _M_ was real. It almost made him breathless. He felt like he could get a panic attack at any moment if only he kept over thinking, and he was the type to overthink all the times. His head was always full of thoughts. Just to feel safer, Seungyoun locked the door of his bedroom. Not that he believed that Wooseok would come in and do weird things to him, from what Seungyoun could get from Wooseok’s conversation with that Jinhyuk guy, the wizard seemed to respect Seungyoun more than expected. Wooseok probably thought that he owed Seungyoun something, since the Muggle had saved his life and now he was keeping him hidden inside his apartment; it made sense. But when realization hit him hard like a truck during the night, Seungyoun felt himself falling into the oblivion. 

All the times he walked around the house completely naked after taking a shower; all the times he came back home euphoric after meeting up with his friends and started to sing and dance to embarrassing songs in embarrassing ways; all the times he did stupid faces and stupid things thinking that no one would see him; all the times he farted and burped thinking that no one would hear him… but most importantly, all the times he hugged, caressed and kissed Forest thinking it was just a common cat; all the times they slept together, on the same bed; all the times Seungyoun showered the cat in affection, talking to him with a sweet voice; all the photos they took together; the pretty shining light-blue collar with a tiny bell… utter embarrassment and shame washed over Seungyoun so strongly that he could feel his blood boil in his head and chest but his feet and hands were frozen cold. He wasn’t the type to feel embarrassed for anything, actually, he was always pretty confident and shameless, so it felt pretty new to him. And not in a positive way.

And suddenly everything started to click and to make sense. The food missing from the kitchen; the objects found where they weren’t supposed to be found; that impression that another person was living under his same roof -because, indeed, it _was_ like that-; the owl outside the window; Forest watching the news on TV and reacting to Seungyoun’s words and actions like he could actually understand everything -because he _could_ understand for real-; that glimpse of glasses on Forest’s face while reading weird newspapers with moving images… it was all real. Seungyoun wasn’t crazy. He wasn’t imagining things. Forest was a human. Forest was a wizard. 

After this phase, Seungyoun’s embarrassment turned into a sort of subtle anger, like a nuisance. He honestly felt stupid. He was feeling like Wooseok had just made fun of him the whole time. The wizard had deceived Seungyoun, stolen his food, slept on his pillow and made Seungyoun love him as a cat. Seungyoun realized that his privacy was violated, too. Of course he wouldn’t have done all those things if only he knew that another sentient being was watching him. Seungyoun then regretted giving in to his irrational instincts that told him to stop Wooseok from leaving. He did that out of desperation, in the vain hope to keep Forest next to him, but the truth was that Forest didn’t exist. And the person who was probably sleeping on the couch in that moment wasn’t Forest, as much as Jinhyuk wanted Seungyoun to believe that those two were a single thing. They weren’t. Seungyoun was just a victim of those wizards’ plan. He had to tell Wooseok this... “just leave”. He had to tell the other that he had a change of heart about keeping him in his house. Seungyoun was scared of magic, it was something too foreign to him -although he was undoubtedly intrigued and was dying out of curiosity, but after getting a taste of some charms performed on him, he definitely didn’t want to experience that feeling once again- and honestly, he had promised to care of Forest, a cat, not Wooseok, a wizard. Whatever Wooseok was alive or not, it wasn’t Seungyoun’s business.

The next morning, Seungyoun felt like dying. He got up when it was definitely too early to go to work, but he felt like suffocating inside his bedroom. He felt the need to take a breath of fresh air outside. Now sitting on the toilet, Seungyoun stared attentively at the wall in front of him. Yeah, all he had to do was to tell Wooseok to just leave. It wasn’t hard. So when he came out of the bathroom with a renewed determination, he saw all his intentions shatter in a million pieces. Wooseok was sleeping on the couch in an obviously uncomfortable position. He seemed cold, too. Weirdly enough, he looked like he accidentally fell asleep while waiting for something… or someone. Seungyoun couldn’t avoid to think that Wooseok had probably waited for him to get out of the bedroom and talk to him for the whole night, for some odd reason. Seungyoun also noticed that the blue cat collar was now placed on the armrest of the couch. Obviously Wooseok had taken it off: he wasn’t a cat, so he had no reason for wearing it. 

Now that Seungyoun could look at the other more attentively, he noticed that Wooseok actually looked sick. The previous night Seungyoun had been too shocked and scared to pay attention to that, but now it appeared obvious in his eyes. The wizard’s skin was pale, and he looked like he had not had a decent meal in weeks, his cheeks were hollow and his overall appearance screamed unhealthy. The bandage around his right shoulder and arm was slightly undone and a very bad wound peaked from underneath it and Seungyoun couldn’t stop himself from feeling a some sort of disgust, although he knew it wasn’t fair for him to feel like that. he decided not to wake Wooseok up and to just get out of the apartment before Wooseok could wake up on his own. Seungyoun suddenly didn’t feel like confronting the other anymore.

With the image of that open wound tormenting his brain and a weird guilty feeling clenching onto his chest, Seungyoun did something he had not done in a long time. He didn’t take the bus to go to work but he walked all the way there. He still had plenty of time before his shift started, anyway. He walked slowly, looking around him and paying attention to the little things people usually never paid any attention to. He took his camera out of his bag and started take photos of things that caught his attention the most, like little winter flowers on the roadside, the clouds with weird shapes, the branches of naked trees, the entrance of a little and old ceramic shop… he liked doing that, it helped him to organize his thoughts. All the things around him looked even more magical because of all the snow that had fallen in the past days, and it looked like it could start snowing again at any moment. 

The weather seemed to reflect perfectly Seungyoun’s mood. He felt gloomy the whole day at work, his brain full of weird and conflicting thoughts and, most of all, he was just very sleepy. Customers came and went, but he didn’t pay any attention to them; he looked at them in the face and smiled but actually it was like he was staring at a black hole. He just smiled brightly at another black hole who just told him, «Good morning. An Americano, please?» and when Seungyoun just automatically pronounced his default answer, «Of course, sir… is that all?», he realized that the black hole actually had a familiar voice. So he focused a little to realize that the black hole had a familiar face, too. Then, realization and surprise hit him: «Oh! The vet!»

Vet Han Seungwoo was really in front of Seungyoun, smiling at him with his broad tight-lipped smile. 

«Ah, so you do remember me», Seungwoo said, chuckling. «For a moment I thought you didn’t recognize me for real!»

Seungyoun didn’t know what to say and how to react. He remembered what Wooseok had told him the night before and suddenly he was too aware of the fact that the person in front of him was another wizard. He didn’t know if he could trust the other. The weird vibes that he’d been getting from Seungwoo were finally making sense now and that sudden knowledge just made Seungyoun even more wary of everything.

«Sorry, I was distracted. What are you doing here?» Seungyoun asked, wondering how the wizard-vet was even able to find his workplace. 

«Oh. It just came to my mind that you told me that you work here when we were talking at the vet clinic, remember? So I thought to pass by to say hi and ask how you’re doing. _A little bird_ told me about your cat, you must be shocked,» Seungwoo explained while Seungyoun was preparing the Americano. Seungyoun mentally swore at himself, having to admit that he’d indeed talked about his job to the other once at the vet clinic -how could Seungwoo even remember that?- and apparently all those wizards knew each other, so he had no doubt that “the little bird” Seungwoo mentioned was Jinhyuk. It felt extremely weird and Seungyoun definitely didn’t want to keep the conversation going, so he just smiled brightly like his job required and said, handing a paper cup filled up with Americano to Seungwoo, «Here’s your order, sir. That would be 5000 won, thank you very much.»

Seungwoo smiled as well, taking out his wallet and handing his card to Seungyoun. Then he leaned against the counter, still that innocent smile all over his face. «Yah, when does your shift end? So we can have a chat more comfortably.»

A confused pout appeared on Seungyoun’s face. He definitely didn’t want to talk to the other. «Chat about what?» he asked, making Seungwoo look at him like he was completely dumb. «About your cat, of course.»

«He’s not my cat. Now sorry, I have to work,» Seungyoun answered, cold. He hoped that his very clear response would make Seungwoo understand that it was time for him to just leave Seungyoun alone for good, but instead Seungwoo sighed and said, «Okay. I’ll be back in a couple of hours.»

Seungyoun was shocked: how could Seungwoo even know that his shift would be over exactly in a couple of hours? Before he could ask him anything or to just tell him not to show up again, Seungwoo was already walking out of the coffee shop. Seungyoun passed the next two hours feeling anxious and wondering if Seungwoo would actually be back to talk to him. 

When his shift finally ended and he found the older waiting for him outside of the coffee shop as promised, Seungyoun didn’t know if he had to be impressed or annoyed. With his tight-lipped smile, Seungwoo asked Seungyoun to follow him. They ended up in a small restaurant, almost empty despite being already dinner time, and they sat at a table in the far corner, where no one would hear or disturb their conversation. Awkwardly, Seungyoun ordered a beer saying that he didn’t feel like eating, while Seungwoo ordered a whole dinner. 

«So what do you want to talk about?» Seungyoun asked once the waiter had walked away, breaking the silence. He couldn’t stop feeling uneasy about all of this. Seungwoo sighed, then said, «I’m a bit worried about Forest.»

Okay, this was actually weird. Seungyoun was completely sure that he had never mentioned cat-Wooseok’s name to Seungwoo before, so how could he even being aware of that? Maybe Jinhyuk told him, but why? The weird vibes Seungyoun was getting from the wizard were sending alarming signals to his whole body, he started to tense. 

«How do you even know how I used to call him?»

«Well, I know a lot of things,» Seungwoo answered, nonchalantly. «You probably know by now I’m not… _like you_.» 

Seungyoun felt like he had just received a punch right in the gut. That division between “me” and “you” put a lot of distance between them, also between Seungyoun and Wooseok. A wizard and a common… how did they call those without powers? Muggle? Yeah, right. Since Seungyoun was a common Muggle and still had no idea of how magic worked, maybe the fact Seungwoo knew so much was normal. A person could do literally anything with magic, apparently. Maybe even bringing people back from the death or becoming immortal or becoming immensely rich or… there were a lot of things he was curious about. So, realizing how little he knew, he decided not to insist on the matter.

«How is Forest’s injury now?» Seungwoo asked, and seeing the vague grimace that appeared on Seungyoun’s face, he hurried to explain, «Let’s just call him that for now, mh? Even walls have ears, you know.» At that Seungyoun even looked around himself like an idiot, totally expecting to find human ears on the walls of the restaurant or to find a dozen people eavesdropping on them. Noticing that the place was still pretty much empty and that none was paying them any attention, Seungyoun ignored Seungwoo’s chuckle and said, «The wound is slightly improving but it still looks bad.» 

Seungwoo sighed; he suddenly looked honestly saddened.

«Sadly, his wound isn’t something that our kind can easily cure either, and it needs constant care. I’ve helped him to get a special medication that can improve his condition, but the truth is that the bite of that creature is fatal in most cases. The fact Forest was able to survive is real _magic_. The fact that you found him and brought him to me, who happen to know what to do in that situation, is _magic_.»

Seungyoun didn’t know what to do with that piece of information. He didn’t feel like he made a miracle happen, he just did what every other decent human being would have done in that same situation. The fact that he ended up bringing Wooseok to Seungwoo, who happened to be a wizard as well, was just a haphazard. Everything that he had done for Wooseok wasn’t intentional, so he didn’t have any merit. 

Seungwoo sighed once again and then continued, «I think you need to hear this. Forest probably hates this situation as well. He didn’t want to pretend to be a cat and go home with you in the first place, but I convinced him because his condition was way too precarious. If you want to blame someone, then go ahead and blame me. I don’t know him much better than you, but I bet he’s going through a lot and I think it’s not easy at all for him to stay hidden in your house when all he wants is to be out here to help the other Aurors and the Ministry in this very dark time. I just wish you’d be more understanding on him. Because you weren’t the only one getting attached to him while he was still pretending to be your cat. He said that he trusts you blindly, didn’t he?»

Seungyoun then realized... Seungwoo seemed to know too much about everything. There was something about the way the older was looking at Seungyoun that was extremely off putting. It was almost like… he was searching information through Seungyoun’s very own inner thoughts. 

«… You’re weird,» Seungyoun whispered. «Why do I feel like you know too much? No, actually… why do I feel like you keep reading my mind and messing it up? I had that feeling the first time I met you as well, at the vet clinic. I definitely didn’t want to keep Forest with me but after talking to you, I… you did _something_ , didn’t you?»

«Whaa, you’re so smart!» Seungwoo chirped, clapping his hands without emitting any sound. «You’re right, I’m a Legilimens. Sometimes I do read and penetrate other people’s thoughts and instill a little… doubt.»

The simplicity and the nonchalantly with which Seungwoo pronounced those words sent shivers down Seungyoun’s spine. The thought that Seungwoo actually messed up his mind was terrifying and unfair. At the vet clinic he did something to convince Seungyoun to bring Wooseok home with him, now he was reading his thoughts again! Seungyoun got up from the chair, annoyed. 

«Stop reading my mind! It creeps me out! Stay away from me!» Seungyoun almost shouted, starting to walk towards the exit door of the restaurant. He realized that he didn’t even get to drink the beer he had ordered, but sure as hell he wasn’t going to pay for it. 

«I can’t avoid it, it’s my nature,» Seungwoo shouted back, then he added, «Just think about all the things I’ve told you, okay? Have a good evening!»

***

While walking on his way home, Seungyoun kept thinking about all the things that Seungwoo had told him, exactly like the wizard wanted. Maybe Seungwoo had “instilled a little doubt” in his mind again. Nevertheless, Seungyoun realized something very powerful that night, when snow finally started to fall again. Wooseok was a victim of the circumstances as well. The truth was that Seungyoun had spent the whole night only thinking about himself and crying over his own circumstances, but he had never, not even for a moment, thought about Wooseok’s situation. He’d never thought about the fact that the other had almost died in a brutal way, to the fact he was still sick and couldn’t survive on his own, to the fact that he was currently in danger because someone scary was looking for him to get rid of him and he probably felt useless, too, since he couldn’t help the other wizards with whatever issue they were dealing with. He never thought about the fact that… it was probably very hard for Wooseok, too. And he felt guilty for not thinking about the other side of story, when he usually was sensible enough to do that. He probably acted like a jerk.

 _“You weren’t the only one getting attached to him while he was still pretending to be your cat.”_ It was hard to believe, but Seungyoun couldn’t deny that he and Wooseok had been through the same things he and Forest had. Because the truth was that Wooseok and Forest were the same entity, as much as Seungyoun wanted to pretend they weren’t.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much again for reading and special thanks to all the kind readers who have left comments and kudos on the previous chapters! <3 Y'all are so precious! My heroes! Ahahahah <3


	4. Chapter 4

Seungyoun came back to his apartment without knowing what to expect, but actually it was just an evening like another. Wooseok was watching the news on TV like he used to do in his cat form as well, and he had a pair of round glasses on his nose. He still looked sick, but also… cute. Seungyoun actually thought that when Wooseok looked at him and smiled, that tiny smile that looked like a pout, and said, «Oh, you’re here. Hi.»

Seungyoun tried to smile and to return the greeting, but as he got closer to Wooseok he couldn’t avoid to look at the wizard’s injury. It was obvious that Wooseok had tried to medicate and to bandage himself as better as he could but he did not a very neat job with it. Wooseok must have realized what Seungyoun was thinking and he suddenly felt self-conscious. The wizard tried to hide the messy bandage but the weird hanbok that he was wearing was torn exactly in that point, and he couldn’t hide it no matter how much he tried.

Seungyoun decided not to make the other feel even more uncomfortable, so he smiled widely and asked, «Have you eaten yet?»

Wooseok looked surprised by that question, like he didn’t expect Seungyoun to be worried about him and to ask him whatever he had eaten the food that Seungyoun had bought for himself and not for him, but he still shook his head.

«Good, me neither! What about some ramen? Ramen is always the best! Do you like spicy food? I have some spicy ramen here somewhere that is the best!» Seungyoun said loudly, trying to sound natural, walking towards the kitchen. Wooseok smiled again. «It’s fine.»

While Seungyoun was “cooking” his instant ramen, Wooseok got up from the couch and stayed next to the other, observing attentively how Seungyoun was doing it. Apparently Wooseok didn’t know how to cook without using magic and that kind of food didn’t exist among the wizards. When they finally sat down at the table to eat and Wooseok got the first taste of the ramen, he looked impressed. «When I cooked it on my own I followed the instructions on the envelope but it didn’t taste as good,» he admitted, pouting. Seungyoun smiled proudly. «Making perfect ramen is an art, you need experience.»

«So,» Seungyoun started again after a moment of silence. «You were the one stealing my food all this time, weren’t you?» he asked suddenly, making Wooseok choke on his food and cough a bit. Then the wizard cleared his throat and tried to look the more cool and impassible he could, but still he seemed slightly embarrassed. Seungyoun found his reaction funny, so he decided to pour some salt on the wound. Wooseok deserved it a bit, after all.

«Ahhh, really…» Seungyoun sighed, dramatically. «I knew it. I thought I was going crazy or that some serial killer was secretly living in my house, doing stuff while I was outside!»

«I’m sorry but I don’t eat cat food, I had to sustain myself somehow and couldn’t use magic,» Wooseok answered way too seriously, and then Seungyoun realized something very important. «Wait… so what happened to all the expensive cat food I bought for you?»

«Well… I tossed it down the toilet. You would’ve noticed if I threw it in the trash,» the wizard answered, trying accurately to avoid Seungyoun’s eyes and to appear nonchalant. Suddenly Seungyoun’s brain started to do some calculations. All the money spent on food and other necessities for the cat, the expensive vet bills... his poor bank account… all the cat food tossed down the toilet… almost crying, Seungyoun shouted, «I can’t believe! Who is going to repay me for everything?!»

«I’m going to fully repay you before leaving, don’t worry,» Wooseok reassured him. «I’ve already informed the Ministry to compensate you with a good amount of gold.»

Then, the calculations still happening in Seungyoun’s brain suddenly stopped. «… Gold?» he repeated.

Wooseok nodded, his cheeks full of ramen. Looking at the way he was eating, maybe this actually was his first decent meal in weeks. Still, Seungyoun’s interest was focused on something else. «Like… pure gold?» Seungyoun asked, just to be sure.

«Gold coins, yeah. Wizards’ currency,» Wooseok replied. Seungyoun muttered a low “woah” at that revelation. So that meant that he was going to be rich? Was the wizard going to cover him in gold coins? If that was going to be his reward for helping Wooseok out, then it was time for Seungyoun to start viewing the whole situation positively. He was going to host Wooseok for a while and get gold coins in return, it sounded just fair. With a renewed enthusiasm, Seungyoun smiled brightly, letting Wooseok eat the last mouthful of ramen from the pot. 

«So, since we have to live under the same roof for a while, I think we have to settle down some things,» Seungyoun proclaimed, pointing at Wooseok with the chopsticks. «Your birth date?»

«There's nothing to settle, we were born in the same year, we can drop honorifics,» Wooseok said absently, looking at the bottom of the now empty pot with some disappointment. He obviously wanted more. Seungyoun looked at the other with surprise. «How do you even know that?»

Wooseok just said nothing, too focused on picking on the crumbs of food lying on the bottom of the pot. The answer was obvious, though. Wooseok had probably looked through Seungyoun’s stuff. Seungyoun wasn’t surprised. More than once he noticed the things in his bedroom being messy or not in the usual order, but a vague annoyance swept his smile away the same. Wooseok probably wanted to know what was going on in Seungyoun's life, because they were complete strangers to each other. As much as Seungyoun was upset by that revelation, he realized that it was probably very hard for Wooseok to trust anyone or anything, considering the precarious situation he was in. Despite that, now Wooseok was obviously trusting Seungyoun completely, the wizard said so himself. And Seungyoun couldn't avoid to wonder what about himself, exactly, made the other develop so much faith in him. So, he decided to just ask.

«Wizard-yah, can I ask you something?» he started, making Wooseok snort at that 'wizard-yah'.

«My name is Kim Wooseok.»

«Right,» Seungyoun agreed, but still refused to call the wizard by his name. Then, looking straight into Wooseok's eyes, he asked, «Why do you trust me?»

Wooseok looked at him with his big eyes, now even bigger out of surprised. Finally Seungyoun had his complete attention, and he felt anxious without a specific reason. Wooseok's human form knew perfectly how to make him feel weird. 

«What do you mean?» Wooseok asked, very attentively. Seungyoun immediately regretted asking the other something that could irredeemably ruin the flow of the conversation and make the both of them go back to their awkward and uncomfortable silence. Seungyoun knew that what he was about to say could go completely wrong, but at the same time he just wanted to know, and being honest. So, he started to rant.

«I mean… you basically know nothing about me. What makes you believe I’m a trustworthy enough person? What if I secretly install cameras around the house and film you guys while you do your magic stuff and then I send the clips to the press, or post them online? What if I’m actually a psycho and try to hurt you or whatever?»

Wooseok looked at the other like he was crazy for a few seconds, and then... he smiled. Like, an actual smile. Not a half smile, not a timid smile, not that sort of pouting smile that Seungyoun saw him doing, but a genuine and pretty smile. 

«Someone who runs like crazy under a snowstorm with frozen feet to save the life of a random stray cat just found on the street can’t be a bad person. Also, just the fact you’re actually worrying about this, putting my safety first, tells me a lot about you. I can trust you,» Wooseok stated, matter-of-factly. Seungyoun felt suddenly self-conscious and embarrassed, like Wooseok had just seen something about him that he wasn't supposed to see once again. 

«How do you know about me running under a snowstorm to save you? Were you awake?» Seungyoun asked, but Wooseok just shook his head. 

«I wasn’t completely conscious at that time but Han Seungwoo told me about it later. I thought it was cute,» Wooseok pronounced the last part in almost a whisper, a tiny amused smile on his lips. Seungyoun didn't know if he was supposed to feel like the wizard was actually making fun of him or not. In the indecision, he decided to change topic.

«Ah, Han Seungwoo… actually I’ve met him just today,» Seungyoun revealed, surprising Wooseok again. «Really?» Wooseok asked.

«Yeah, he came to my workplace to ask me about you, he was worried... I guess,» Seungyoun just 'guessed' that because Seungwoo was still shady as hell to him.

«Oh,» Wooseok muttered with a smile. He looked very pleased by the revelation. «Doctor Han is very nice, he helped me out a lot. He helped me to contact the Ministry and let them know where I were. He sent out some owls in my place as well. He’s a good person. I wish I could stay with him but his position is precarious right now. Sojinhang is keeping an eye on him already so it would be risky.»

Now, hearing Wooseok pronounce that name, Seungyoun realized that he still had to ask the most important question of all. «Who is this Sojinhang guy and what does he want?» Wooseok paused a few seconds, staring attentively at something undefined behind Seungyoun, like he was gathering his thoughts. It probably wasn't easy to explain something like that to someone who was completely foreigner to magic, the wizarding world and its dynamics.

«Let’s just say that he’s someone with very distinctive political views and ideals. He wants to unite North and South Korea, take control over the Ministry of Magic of the South and set his own rules to dominate over the whole country. And those rules aren’t very pleasurable, I can tell you that. For Muggles neither.»

«What do Muggles have to do with this story?»

«Sojinhang wants to step on you Muggles. For him you're nothing more than insects. Actually, even in South Korea, there are very strict rules that prevent wizards and witches to have close interactions with Muggles, this is also the reason why the Ministry was very adamant about obliviating you. No Muggle should know of our existence and we can't have personal relationships with your kind either, but at the North the division is even worse. There's a strong stigma against you Muggles.»

Seungyoun got a shiver down his spine. So most magical creatures (at least in Korea) considered Muggles as inferior beings. It wasn't that surprising to him, the way the wizards he came in contact with referred to him sounded kind of degrading in the first place, but that man called Sojinhan seemed extremely dangerous. Not only he was a threatening figure to Wooseok, but apparently everyone all over the country had a reason to fear him, although Muggle weren’t aware of that.

«Is there an actual possibility that this will happen? I mean, that crazy bastard taking control over your Ministry and the whole country?»

«The possibility is very real, of course. We are working really hard on preventing that, though. And this is the reason why I have to get better as soon as possible. I have to go and fight with my Aurors.»

Now that Seungyoun knew that a real wizarding war was going on in the background without common people knowing, and that the whole country could potentially fall in the hands of a crazy North Korean wizard, Seungyoun didn't know how to go on with his life or what to do with his hands. He decided to get up from the chair and make some more ramen. Wooseok looked still hungry. 

«So dictators exist among wizards as well,» Seungyoun reasoned out loud after making some order among his thoughts, because that was the impression he got of Sojinhang by listening to Wooseok's words. 

«Of course,» the wizard said. «Just because magic runs in our veins, it doesn’t mean that our human nature is any different from yours. We have dark sides, too. Even more so because we have abilities you don’t have.»

Seungyoun just hummed in agreement before letting a long silence fall between them. In the silence, his brain was working fervently. He was totally making up scenarios. Looking at how Wooseok was dressed -a sort of black dress or robe that looked like a revisited version of a male hanbok, a long cloak over his shoulder-, he imagined wizards fighting against each other in an actual old-fashioned way, like it happened in the Goryeo Era, with swords and, occasionally, pronouncing spells... since they were wizards, they couldn't fight only using weapons, they most probably used magic, too... what about guns? Eh, wizards using firearms? That sounded unlikely. They didn't seem very updated with technology.

Seungyoun couldn't resist anymore. He needed to know. Once the ramen was ready, Seungyoun sat down at the table again, placing the hot and fragrant pot full of ramen under Wooseok's nose. The wizard licked his lips and Seungyoun wondered how hungry the other actually was. Seungyoun smiled happily at him and proceeded to make an encouraging gesture, inviting the other to eat.

«Yah,» Seungyoun started, getting slightly closer to Wooseok, who was now stuffing his cheeks with food, «But how does magic work? You have those wood sticks, right? Where do you get those?»

The two of them started a long conversation about magic and the world Wooseok came from. The wizard explained to Seungyoun that those 'wood sticks' were wands, necessary to perform a vast majority of spells, and that the wands were created by wand makers. Apparently there was more than just one wand maker in Korea. Sadly, Wooseok's wand snapped in half when he got injured, but Jinhyuk was going to give him another one. «Just a temporary one, because it's the wand to choose the wizard, not the other way around. I can't perform magic at my best with a wand that doesn't belong to me only,» Wooseok told him. Seungyoun found it extremely fascinating. But then it wasn't enough, so Seungyoun kept asking questions.

How do you become a wizard? Seungyoun kind of wanted to try to become one, but Wooseok was very quick to destroy his expectations; magic is an innate ability, you can't become a wizard, you must be born with it in you.

But how do you learn to use magic, then? Wooseok told him that his family taught him everything since he was a little kid, especially his grandfather, who used to be a highly respected Auror. What is an Auror? Wizards and witches who work for the Ministry in order to fight obscure and dangerous forces who practice dark magic. How do you become one? You have to take and pass with top marks a number of exams, both theoretical and practical.

«These exams are extremely hard, a lot of people have to take them more than once, but of course I passed all of them at once.» Wooseok said it with such refined manners that it didn't even sound like he was shamelessly bragging. Apparently Wooseok was so good that he was one of the best Aurors at Ministry's service, along with Jinhyuk. They really were a golden couple.

Seungyoun was about to ask more -he really wanted to know more, he had so many questions about wizards' relationships with technology and magic in general-, but suddenly his doorbell rang. He quickly checked the time from his phone and it was really late, it was unlikely that some of his friends came to visit him at such a late hour.

«It's probably Jinhyuk. He said he would be back tonight,» Wooseok told Seungyoun before turning himself into his cat form in an instant. Seungyoun almost got a heart attack at that sudden view. He wasn't going to get used to the fact Wooseok could transform into Forest and Forest could transform into Wooseok anytime soon. It still felt too weird and surreal, but when Forest looked up at him with those beautiful big blue eyes, Seungyoun had to fight the urgency to pet him. Now such demonstrations of affection weren't allowed anymore between the two of them. 

Pretending that everything was okay, Seungyoun walked to the front door and opened it, finding in front of his eyes the nice grandpa that lived downstairs. The old man was carrying a big grocery bag and the weirdest thing about him that Seungyoun noticed, was that he wasn't smiling as usual. Instead, he just got inside the apartment in a hurry, pushing Seungyoun aside to have enough room to walk through the door, and with a quick movement of his hand, the door suddenly closed and locked itself. That was definitely magic. 

«Wooseok-ah!» the grandpa called out loud a second before disappearing, because Jinhyuk was now in his place; just the old-fashioned clothes were the same. Jinhyuk’s dark brown hair suddenly turned into an intense shade of red as soon as Wooseok switched back to his human form and walked towards the other wizard with a bland smile on his lips. This time the two didn't hug or anything, and Seungyoun felt quite grateful. He didn't want to be a third wheel again. But maybe he still was a third wheel, though, because the two were acting like Seungyoun didn't exist at all. Jinhyuk didn't even greet him.

«I'm here with good news and bad news, what do you want first?» Jinhyuk asked Wooseok.

«The bad news,» Wooseok answered without even an ounce of hesitation. Jinhyuk smiled widely, like he was expecting it, and then took out of the grocery bag he was still carrying a cute shiba-inu pouch.

«Nah, better the good one first,» Jinhyuk said, still grinning. The taller wizard then proceeded to open the pouch and place it on the floor. Suddenly, the pouch grew in size and before Seungyoun could even realize what was going on, an actual human hand sprang out of the pouch, followed by an arm and then a head... a young boy with bright blonde hair was literally coming out of a shiba-inu pouch. A damn shiba-inu pouch. Seungyoun instinctively screamed and had to lean his body against the wall to avoid to fall on the floor. All that sudden magic stuff was going to kill him, someday. But he didn't expect to see another hand, another arm and another entire body to emerge from the pouch.

«Daebak,» Seungyoun whispered, not being able to believe his eyes. A total of four guys came out of the pouch. How the heck four human beings were able to fit inside such a small pouch was the biggest mystery to him.

«Guys!» Wooseok exclaimed with the widest and happiest smile that Seungyoun had ever seen on his face. He looked surprised, but also delighted. A cute little boy who looked like a poodle jumped in Wooseok's arms as soon as his body emerged from the pouch. The other three immediately joined the puppy-like boy, followed by Jinhyuk, turning that hug in a big collective one. Then a mess of voices exploded. Seungyoun couldn't understand what all of them were saying, he just knew that one of the guys was crying loudly like a little kid, while the others were screaming things like, «Do you have an idea of how worried we were?!» and «How do you feel? Are you hurt?» or «Can I see the Bulgae's bite?».

«I couldn’t stop them from following me here. They insisted so much, they were all worried,» Jinhyuk had to admit in front of Wooseok's questioning look once the mess had calmed down and the collective hug had loosened up. Only the kid who looked like a poodle was still hugging Wooseok tightly and crying so desperately that Seungyoun was almost moved to tears as well, and he wasn't the only one. Wooseok's big eyes were teary, so much that they looked like a starry sky, and the tip of his cute nose was red. Seungyoun could perfectly tell that he was trying hard not to cry and that sight made him feel weird. 

«Wooseokie-hyung… I-I thought… you were dead!» the poodle-boy sobbed loudly, tears steaming down his cheeks. He really was adorable.

«I’m fine, I’m fine!» Wooseok reassured him, making the other sob even louder. «I’ve... I've missed you so much!» the boy declared wholeheartedly. 

While everyone was too busy trying to calm the crying kid down, Seungyoun's eyes moved on the shiba-inu pouch, that had shrank back to its original size and was now lying lifeless on the floor. He carefully walked towards the small object and crunched next to it, still keeping some safety distance because he couldn't be sure of what that -apparently harmless- pouch could do, maybe it could start moving on its own or something. He looked inside and, with big surprised, he saw that the pouch was... just a common pouch like any other. It was almost empty, except for a few objects that Seungyoun couldn't recognize: he absolutely had no idea of the utility of that stuff, but that didn't mean that he didn't want to know. Very slowly he put his hand inside the pouch, but the more he tried to grab the objects, the more he couldn't do it, and suddenly... «WAAHH!!!»

Everyone in the room turned around to look at Seungyoun, who had the entirety of his arm stuck inside the pouch. The feeling was incredible; it was like his arm was just moving within a big empty space, but he swore that the pouch was just a normal pouch.

«Woah!! My whole arm disappeared inside! How is this even possible?!» Seungyoun yelled, almost slipping even his whole head inside, but no matter how much he tried to look, he still couldn't see where his arm went to.

«It looks like a normal bag but actually I’ve put an Undetectable Extension Charm on it. It’s almost bottomless,» Jinhyuk explained, but it's not like Seungyoun was actually listening to him.

«Wah!!! Ahhh! I’ve touched something weird! Ah, what’s that?! Woah, it’s like that game where you have to put a hand inside a box and figure out what there’s inside… is this a broom?!»

The four young wizards that just a while ago came out of the pouch moved their perplexed gazes from Seungyoun to Wooseok who, on the other hand, looked completely unbothered, like it was the norm for him. «Don't mind him. He gets excited easily.»

One of the four kids, maybe finding Seungyoun's great enthusiasm kind of amusing, chuckled and joined Seungyoun, crunching down next to him and putting his hand inside the pouch as well. Seungyoun looked at him, smiling. The guy was seriously handsome, with dark brown hair and good proportions. Although his expression was completely emotionless at first, he suddenly opened up in a cute smile and said, «Ahhh, I think I’ve touched a pair of dirty socks.»

«I want to play, too!» The poodle-like kid, who had stopped crying in the meantime, chirped with a big smile. Before he could even move a step, Jinhyuk grabbed him for an arm, stopping him.

«We don't have time to waste, it’s dangerous for everyone’s safety to stay here for long, especially for Wooseok. We are going to leave in a few minutes,» Jinhyuk warned the other, more serious than Seungyoun had ever seen him. The atmosphere suddenly changed, and Seungyoun realized that it was time to stop messing around with the bottomless shiba pouch. He pulled his arm out -a melted chocolate frog was now stuck on his arm- and got up, the other brunette who was playing with the pouch did the same with a small sigh.

«We've arrived here just now! We can't leave so soon!» the blonde boy protested and Jinhyuk sighed loudly.

«You're not supposed to be out of the Academy at this hour, what is going to happen if they find out that Jinhyuk brought you here of all places?» Wooseok intervened, sending a reprimanding look to the younger ones.

In that moment, another handsome guy with dark hair took what it looked like an old folded piece of parchment out of the pocket of his robe, really similar to the one Wooseok was wearing. Actually, now that Seungyoun noticed it, all of them were dressed the same way, just the colors of the dresses were different. Wooseok's dress was black, while the younger ones were dressed in gray. But now Seungyoun's attention was on the old parchment that the handsome brunette was unfolding in front of his eyes. It was a map, but map of what, Seungyoun had no idea. What impressed him at first glance, though, was that the images on the map were moving on their own, like the weird newspaper he caught Wooseok reading once. There were tiny footsteps moving around the map, it was so fascinating that Seungyoun couldn't believe his eyes once again that night. At the top of the map, there was a little sentence in bright green, it said, 'It's 23 o'clock and all is well'. Seungyoun checked the hour from his phone once again and it was actually 11pm. «We haven't been caught yet. Everything seems fine at the Academy. We can stay a little longer.»

«What is this thing?» Wooseok asked. To Seungyoun's surprise, he seemed shocked at the view of that weird map as much as he was. Jinhyuk chuckled. «I'm afraid that they sneak out of the Academy way more often than what we thought. They even created a map to help themselves to go around without getting caught.»

«Yah... are you kidding me? This is against the rules! I'm going to confiscate the map and report you all to the headmaster!» Wooseok threatened them, but the handsome guy who was holding the map smiled cutely. Seungyoun couldn't tell if he looked more like a puppy or a bunny, but the little wrinkles around his eyes he got when smiling were totally endearing. 

«Eish, Wooseokie-hyung. We were so worried we came all the way here. I'm so happy to see you,» he said with a broken high-pitched voice, desperately trying to be cute, then proceeded to hug the older. It automatically became another collective hug that made Wooseok disappear behind the taller boys. Seungyoun laughed, thinking they definitely knew how to distract Wooseok and make him shut up.

«Alright, alright. You saw I'm alive so now just go. It's dangerous. And I'm still going to confiscate this, just to be sure,» Wooseok ordered, breaking the hug and snatching the map from the other's hands.

All the kids started to complain loudly and Seungyoun could see it. Despite looking impassible and cool, the sadness in Wooseok's eyes was obvious. It was probably really hard for him. Being completely isolated by the rest of wizarding world, being stuck inside a Muggle's apartment without being able to go outside, deprived of his powers and now having to send away his friends like that. There was no need to know Wooseok deeply to realize that he was a very cat person -his Animagus form reflected that perfectly-, he was calm and independent, but he also reserved great affection for people whom he trusted and loved. Seungyoun looked at him and he actually felt it on his skin, like it was his own emotion... lonely. Wooseok was lonely. 

Seungyoun couldn't tell what strange force pushed him to suddenly step forward with a bright smile plastered on his face, but before he could stop himself, he was already close to the group of wizards and speaking loudly. «Yah, why don’t you all stay for just a bit... let's say, half an hour? Half an hour sounds like a good compromise, doesn't it? Just the time to eat something. Wooseok-ssi and I were just having some ramen and I think we can arrange some snacks for everyone, right, Wooseok-ssi?»

Suddenly, everyone's eyes were on him. Wooseok's eyes too, now wide open out of surprise, but surprise disappeared quickly to leave space to something that looked more like annoyance. 

«No, they have t-» Wooseok started speaking, but Seungyoun almost screamed over his voice, «Here, come in, come in, make yourself at home!» Then he guided the others towards the kitchen, where he started to look frantically for some tasty snacks. He knew for sure that he had some treats hidden somewhere because his mom would always bring him his favorite things, but he rarely ate them; he didn't eat much in general, reason why his mom was always worried about him and ready to fill his fridge. 

«What do you guys like? You're probably too young for soju and dried fish, right? I think I have Pringles and some other chips around here but I don't remember the flavor... oh, Orion fish-shaped cakes! These taste the best! I have dried seaweeds, too, and I'm sure that there's pizza leftovers in the fridge. What do you think?» he turned around with the snacks just mentioned in his hands, smiling excitedly, expecting some reactions, but the wizards were looking at him like he was speaking a foreigner language. Then again, they turned around to look at Wooseok, like he was the only one capable to explain what the other was saying. 

«We wizards don't eat that stuff,» Jinhyuk replied instead of Wooseok. 

«Oh,» Seungyoun suddenly realized that it made sense. Wooseok didn't even know what instant ramen was, it sounded unlikely that a bunch of wizards were familiar with Pringles or pizza. But, after all, there was a first time for everything. «It's okay, you can try them out. They're good, I swear!»

Seungyoun placed all the snacks and drinks he had on the floor of the living room, then sat down on the carpet, waiting for the others to join him. The impassible-looking guy who had joined Seungyoun in the pouch exploration a while ago just shrugged and came forward, sitting next to Seungyoun. All the others followed after a moment of hesitation.

Wooseok looked at Jinhyuk. «Do you think they can stay just half an hour?»

«I guess we can manage that. I also have to talk to you privately for a bit so it's fine.»

Wooseok nodded, then he turned around to look at Seungyoun. «Jinhyuk and I need to talk, can we use your bedroom a moment?»

«Uh... okay,» Seungyoun answered, trying to fight the urge to yell in their faces to just talk in front of everyone. He wanted to know as well! But before he could say anything else the blonde guy curled his lips in a smiled and howled, «Oooh, the bedroom!»

An explosion of giggles invaded Seungyoun's apartment. Jinhyuk snorted and covered his face with one of his hands, as to hide his embarrassment, while Wooseok looked absolutely not impressed by the joke.

«Let's go,» the Animagus muttered while walking towards Seungyoun's bedroom, ignoring more giggles and jokes from the other wizards. When the bedroom's door finally closed behind Wooseok and Jinhyuk, the giggles immediately stopped. All of them got up and rushed towards the bedroom, obviously trying to eavesdrop on that private conversation. Seungyoun joined the others as well, although he didn't exactly know why -actually, there were too many questions in his head already and all that secrecy was just making things worse-, but even after a couple of minutes, they couldn't hear even a single word coming from inside the room.

«I can't hear anything!» the bunny-like guy with the map hissed in a whisper, annoyed. 

«Me neither!» the blonde guy complained.

«The probably isolated the room with a protection charm,» the inexpressive boy guessed. 

«Or maybe they are kissing,» the blonde boy giggled again, trying to make the poodle-looking kid stop from curving his lips in a sad pout.

When, with great general disappointment, they all realized that there was no use in keeping their ears pressed against the door any further, they all got up and sat in a circle on the carpet again. The four wizards bowed to Seungyoun and thanked him for the food, before they started eating. Seungyoun smiled and waved a hand at them. «Ah, it's nothing!»

Then Seungyoun realized something very important: they still had to be introduced to each other. 

«Yah, let's introduce each other! Let's start from me, I'm Cho Seungyoun and I'm the same age as Wooseok,» he proclaimed confidently with his hand up in the air. «What about you?»

The 'you' Seungyoun was referring to was Song Hyeongjun, the poodle-looking boy. He was 17 years old and he was very cute. The one next to Hyeongjun was Minhee, very recognizable thanks to his platinum blonde hair. He was 17 as well, although he looked older than Hyeongjun. After Minhee there was Cha Junho, another 17 years old boy, who was inexpressive only apparently, because he actually seemed a very friendly and funny person to Seungyoun. The last one and also the older with his 20 years, was Kim Yohan, who apparently thought that that formal collective introduction -it looked like an alcoholics anonymous meeting, now that Seungyoun noticed- was very funny. He was really handsome and also really cute when he smiled.

Seungyoun was honestly impressed because Wooseok and all of his friends looked like models or idols, those celebrities you see on magazines or on TV. Were the wizarding genes so powerful? Did they change their appearances thanks to magic, like a sort of supernatural plastic surgery? He thought it was better not to ask.

«Your house looks so weird and funny,» Minhee told Seungyoun, looking around himself, and the older didn't know if he had to feel offended or not at that observation, but at least those young wizards seemed curious. They asked the Muggle a lot of questions about his domestic appliances and his smartphone, confirming Seungyoun's suspicion that they had no contact whatsoever with technology.

«What do you do for a living, hyung?» Hyeongjun asked him with a genuine encouraging smile. Seungyoun was pleasantly surprised by the fact they had just introduced each other but Seungyoun was already 'hyung' to them; those kids were so friendly.

«I work in a café but mostly I write music,» Seungyoun explained, trying to keep it short and understandable for the boys who looked so foreigner to the Muggle world. They didn't seem so impressed with his life, apparently being a musician isn't anything special to wizards. At least they didn't ask further questions. He decided to change topic. «So are you guys A... Auro... ah, what was that?»

«Aurors?» Junho asked. «Not yet. We're studying at the preparation academy to become Aurors, though.» 

Seungyoun nodded while things clicked together in his head. So the academy they all were referring to was a preparation school where they learned everything necessary to pass the exams and become real Aurors.

«But Yohanie-hyung is going to take the final exam next month, so he's an almost-Auror,» Junho added, sending a fond look at Yohan.

«Don't talk about it,» Yohan grumbled with squinted eyes, looking like he was physically hurting just thinking about it. Seungyoun remembered what Wooseok had told him just a while ago about the Auror exam being extremely hard, so he guessed that for them taking that exam was like taking the CSAT for common Korean high school students.

«Eish, don't make that face, I bet you can do it. Fighting!» Seungyoun tried to cheer Yohan up with a wide encouraging smile, but Yohan just looked up at him like he didn't understand anything. «You don't understand, hyung.»

Since Seungyoun didn't understand anything for real about that stuff, he decided to investigate: «It can't be that bad. What do you have to do during the exam?»

«Jinhyukie-hyung told me he had to fight against five dark wizards at once all on his own,» Hyeongjun said with his cute puppy face contracted in a very sad -almost desperate- expression, like it was a given that Yohan would have died next month during the exam and there was nothing they could do about it.

«Really? He told me he had to fight against one hundred Dementors!» Minhee exclaimed with his eyes wide open and his mouth full of chips. «What are Dementors?» Seungyoun asked, but his question went lost among the general indignation. Apparently Jinhyuk gave out different versions to all those who asked him about his exam. Seungyoun snorted; Jinhyuk was pretty much messing around with the younger ones.

«See, hyung? You shouldn't worry,» Junho giggled at the realization, patting Yohan's back. The oldest one of that group of young wizards looked completely dumbfounded, it was like he couldn't find the energy to munch on his food anymore while processing the truth. What Jinhyuk had told him was, most probably, all lies. Then, a new determination sparkled in Yohan’s eyes. 

«He's going to hear me out on this», he stated with a broken high pitched voice, ready to get up and walk inside Seungyoun's bedroom to get his revenge, but the other three stopped him with a loud «No!» and «You are too strong, you can't kill him yet!» and then «Wooseok-hyung is going to be a widower even before getting married!»

Seungyoun laughed at that, but then his mind trailed off. It went back to Wooseok and Jinhyuk, and he couldn't avoid to wonder what they were talking about locked in his bedroom and what relationship they actually had. The kids just pretty much accidentally confirmed to Seungyoun that what he had heard the night before about Wooseok and Jinhyuk getting married was actually a thing and everyone around the two seemed to be completely aware of that. Well, it wasn't Seungyoun’s business so it wasn't right for him to stick his nose in matters that had nothing to do with him, and it wasn't fair to ask about such personal things to kids he just got to know, but... «So a marriage between two same-sex people is possible in your society?» Seungyoun realized he had asked that out loud too late, now everyone's attention was on him.

«Yeah, why not?» Yohan asked, eating in such a cute way that Seungyoun couldn't believe he was all angry just a minute before. 

«Well, I don't know. Among Muggles it isn’t very well accepted, so I was just wondering,» Seungyoun reasonated. Then another question popped up in his mind. «What about children? Do you adopt them?»

«Are you seriously asking that to wizards, Muggle-hyung?» Minhee mocked him, laughing at Seungyoun's shocked expression.

«So you can conceive kids using magic?!» It sounded crazy to him.

«Of course!» Minhee said, confidently, and at that Seungyoun couldn't hold back his curiosity as he asked, «And how does that work? Does a man get pregnant?»

Everyone started giggling loudly, apparently they found it extremely funny, Yohan was basically rolling on Junho's lap. Seungyoun, on the other hand, was baffled by that revelation. «It's not an actual physical conceivement, hyung!» Hyeongjun said, looking at him with an amused but understanding smile. «It's very advanced magic and it involves a very complicated charm and...»

Exactly when Hyeongjun was about to explain to him in detail how conceivement between two same-sex people worked among wizards, Wooseok and Jinhyuk got out of Seungyoun's bedroom and walked towards them.

«What were you talking about?» Jinhyuk asked with a broad smile, like nothing had happened at all, sitting on floor among the others. 

«We are the ones who should ask that!» Yohan complained. «And I know you lied to all of us about your Auror exam!»

«What? How do you know that?» Jinhyuk feigned innocence, grinning and putting a handful of chips in his mouth.

«Well, you told all of us a different version!»

«Who tells you that I didn't have to do every single one of those things during the exam?»

Yohan's eyes grew bigger. The group of young wizards gasped loudly, in shock. A heavy silence fell over them. Junho patted Yohan's shoulders once again, whispering, «We will miss you, hyung.»

«Stop acting like I'm about to die! If I die, you're going to die too in a couple of years!» Yohan snapped out of frustration, making the other three gasp once again, and the scene was so cute that Seungyoun laughed in amusement. He was not really worried about Yohan being able to survive through the exam because he was still pretty sure that Jinhyuk was messing around with them once again, especially because Wooseok was smiling fondly. 

Now that Seungyoun could look at Wooseok closely, he noticed that the latter looked paler than before and extremely tired, like he could fall asleep at any moment. Indeed, he remembered that Wooseok told him he was always sleepy and weak, but the wizard didn't show that. Wooseok talked, smiled and laughed with his friends, asking them how they were doing at the academy and other things Seungyoun had absolutely no idea about. Still, they seemed to enjoy that little extra time they got to spend together. There was a lot of hugging and cuddling going on, like they needed each other's vicinity to feel at ease and erase all the worries. It was obvious that they missed each other a lot. They looked like a bunch of puppies, it was cute and it felt warm, like family. Seungyoun almost envied them. 

When it was time for them to leave, Wooseok and his wizard friends hugged for the last time that night, making the promise to see each other again soon. Then, the younger kids disappeared inside the shiba-inu pouch like it was the most normal thing in the world, while Jinhyuk changed his appearances to look like the old man downstairs, and just as they came, they left, leaving Seungyoun and Wooseok alone. It was suddenly awkward again. 

Before Seungyoun could even open his mouth to say anything, Wooseok's body wobbled terribly and Seungyoun noticed it just in time to catch the other in his arms before he could fall on the floor and, most probably, hurt himself.

«Yah! What's going on?! Do you feel bad?! Yah?!» Seungyoun screamed, in panic, holding Wooseok super tightly because he would never forgive himself if something bad happened to the wizard, but then he looked closely and noticed that... Wooseok was just asleep. He was sleeping so profoundly, like he had not slept in years. He didn't even budge or wake up when Seungyoun basically lifted him up like a bag full of potatoes and carried him to the bedroom. He guessed that Wooseok could have his bed, just for that night, just because he was obviously sick and Seungyoun was too nice and soft to let him sleep on the uncomfortable tiny sofa. Seungyoun sighed while covering Wooseok with the bed sheets to prevent him from feeling cold. He had to get mentally ready to a long night on the uncomfortable little sofa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Thanks once again for reading and special thanks to whoever left kudos and comments :D  
> See you next time!


	5. Chapter 5

When Seungyoun got up the next morning, he swore to himself that it was the last time he slept on the uncomfortable tiny couch. He didn't care if Wooseok was injured and sick, or even about to die, that was definitely the last damn time. No doubt about that. The worst part was that not only he’d slept like shit, but he also woke up in the middle of a dream he couldn't remember because of the excessive sunlight that had flooded the small livingroom, and his back was hurting like crazy on top of that; his bones cracked painfully when he tried to put himself into a sitting position. Groaning, he got up from the couch and walked towards the bathroom and, without thinking about the fact that now he wasn't the only person living there, he opened the door with complete nonchalance, just to find a shirtless Wooseok standing in front of the mirror. 

«Ah, I'm so sorry, I'm sorry! I forgot!» Seungyoun yelled with his eyes shut tightly as he closed the door again; thank god he didn't find Wooseok in a more embarrassing situation, like sitting on the toilet or completely naked after taking a shower. But then Seungyoun stopped his train of thoughts and tried to recall rationally what he had actually seen inside the bathroom, and in that moment he realized that Wooseok was shirtless just because he was trying to medicate his injury on his own. After a moment of indecision, Seungyoun cracked the bathroom door open just a bit, just to let his head slide inside. Yeah, he was right. Wooseok was putting a weird shiny moisture on the very bad looking slash on his arm and back. 

«What?» Wooseok asked him, looking at Seungyoun through the reflection in the mirror.

«Do you need any help with that?» He offered, politely, receiving in return a cold smile from Wooseok and a «No, thanks.» 

«Are you sure?» Seungyoun asked again, because it was obvious that Wooseok was having some difficulties with reaching the injured part on his back. Bending the open wound was probably even more difficult. Seungyoun mentally noted to himself that he needed to go to a pharmacy. 

«Don't worry, I can take care of it myself,» Wooseok reassured him. At that point Seungyoun had no other choice than to mumble a timid «Alright...», and to proceed to close the door. But then, Seungyoun stopped in his track: he had not to worry? When Wooseok’s injury looked like that and he’d passed out in his arms just the night before? How could Wooseok expect him not to worry, especially considering that now the wizard was living under his same roof and Seungyoun was irreparably involved in whatever mess Wooseok had put him into?

«But, rationally speaking... how am I supposed not to worry?» Seungyoun asked, way more serious than his usual self, at the point that a rather surprised Wooseok turned around to look at him directly. 

«Yesterday night you literally passed out all of a sudden and your injury looks so bad on your human body... I didn't realize it was so serious when you were a cat. And what am I supposed to do if your wound gets an infection and you die? Can I call the Muggle police or the Muggle ambulance? Honestly I don't want to ask that Seungwoo guy to help me either, he keeps reading my mind and messing it up and I'd much more prefer if you just... _stay alive_. So can you tell me if you need any help?»

A long moment of silence passed between them, their gazes glued together, until Wooseok, unexpectedly... snorted loudly.

«Why are you laughing?!» Seungyoun screamed, so humiliated that he could feel his ears burning. 

«Sorry. You're cute,» Wooseok chuckled, and the other didn’t know if he had to feel even more humiliated or to take that statement as a compliment. «I'm not going to die. I'll probably pass out like yesterday night very often. Like I told you already, these are the consequences of the Bulgae bite, but the wound is actually getting better. I'll be okay.»

Seungyoun hesitated. He wasn't 100% sure he could trust the wizard's words, but after all he knew nothing about the after-effects of Bulgae's bites and whatnot (actually, he didn't even know what a Bulgae was, he mentally noted to himself to ask about it later). So, if Wooseok told him that it was alright, Seungyoun had to believe it. He had to. Without complaining, Seungyoun just nodded and was about to close the bathroom door to leave Wooseok alone, when the latter suddenly handed him the bottle containing that weird moisture (most probably a magical medication) and the gauze he was using to apply it. 

«Here. Help me if this makes you feel better. It's a bit hard to reach the part at the back,» Wooseok admitted, eventually, turning his back towards Seungyoun so that the latter could actually help him. Now that the Muggle had to do what he had offered to do, he could feel the awkwardness of the moment encumber all over him. Silently, he proceeded with the medication exactly like he used to do with Forest every day. He was completely focused, but then he heard Wooseok say, «Good.»

«What?» Seungyoun asked, confused.

«Despite the fact I almost died and I'm still recovering, I still look extremely good, don't I?» Wooseok boasted, looking attentively at the reflection of himself in the mirror. Seungyoun wasn't sure what to reply to that, so he decided to just let out a half chuckle, noticing that Wooseok had never stopped looking at his own reflection. Obviously, Wooseok's face was beautiful, but he was also extremely thin, almost in an unhealthy way; Seungyoun was scared that he could break in half any moment. Still, Seungyoun wasn't in the place to say anything about it. 

After carefully covering up the wound, Wooseok let Seungyoun use the bathroom, and the latter used that moment of privacy to think about the fact he really wanted to feed Wooseok a lot of food. He wanted to let the wizard eat a lot of delicious things, from the traditional Muggle recipes to the desserts and that great bread that he usually bought from that small shop on his way home. Seungyoun’s mind started to plan a menu list. He had to go and do a bit of grocery shopping as well. He wasn't the best at cooking but he was almost never at home for lunch, and Wooseok had to eat anyway. Breakfast was important as well, and Seungyoun always had only a quick black coffee before heading to work, where he drank some more black coffee. His habits had to change according to Wooseok now, and that meant that he had to spend more money on food, something that he had tried to avoid before. 

When Seungyoun finally got out of the bathroom, he gave a better look at Wooseok, who was sitting on the sofa watching the news on TV as usual. Then, he noticed that there was something different in the wizard. «Oh, did you change your clothes?»

Indeed, in that moment Wooseok was wearing a white dress, very similar to a male hanbok, like the black one that Seungyoun had seen on him before, but this one definitely looked more comfortable to wear. It was less stuffy and more light, especially without the cloak on his shoulders.

«Yeah, yesterday night Jinhyuk brought me some changes of clothes, some stuff to medicate my injury and other things I’ll need while I stay here. And this,» Wooseok said, pulling out from an internal pocket of the dress that wood stick they called “wand”. At that sight Seungyoun slightly jumped out of surprise and fear. He definitely didn’t have any good memory tied to wands in general, and he wanted that thing as far away from himself as possible. Wooseok must have noticed the other’s reaction, because he smirked, amused.

«Don’t worry, I won’t perform any spell on you. I promised, remember? Also, my powers aren’t back yet. I can’t do anything with this,» Wooseok said, reassuring, but the sad note was very much real in his voice, as his eyes looked down at the wand… apparently an useless wand. Seungyoun then realized that he didn’t have anything to fear. Wooseok was just as powerless as he was. Wooseok was alone and sad just as he was. Even if his magic was suddenly back, there was no reason for the wizard to do anything to Seungyoun. Then, the Muggle suddenly remembered something that he wanted to ask the wizard: «Yah, what did you and Jinhyuk talk about yesterday?»

He knew perfectly that the two wizards had a private and secretive conversation, but if something serious was going on, he had any right to know. Luckily Wooseok didn’t seem particularly bothered by his curiosity. 

«He just updated me on the situation and we had some talks on politics. He needed my advice for something work related, too. He also told me he won’t be able to come by for a while because he knows someone is following his every move and he doesn’t want to put me in danger. That’s all. We didn’t talk about it in front of you because we didn’t want to scare the kids, it’s already hard enough on them as it is.»

Seungyoun looked at him in surprise; the revelation made him feel like a rock suddenly appeared inside his stomach. «A spy is following him?! Like, a Sojinhang’s wizard is undercover around you guys and is following Jinhyuk or something like that?!» Seungyoun asked and Wooseok just nodded his head.

«Woah,» Seungyoun whispered, getting goosebumps. «But if Jinhyuk is so sure of it, why doesn’t he just go to the _Wizard Police_ and tell them what he knows?»

«It’s not that easy. First of all, he doesn’t have any solid proof; second, the person he suspect of isn’t someone he can accuse easily because of their position.»

Seungyoun didn’t know what to say. The thought that some dangerous wizard could find out where Wooseok was hiding through Jinhyuk and break into Seungyoun’s house to kill both of them, sent shivers down his spine. He was starting to realize how scary the whole situation actually was. He didn’t need such pieces of information before coffee in the morning. 

«This is really scary. I see why Jinhyuk is always so tense,» Seungyoun commented as he walked towards the coffee machine to make his usual black coffee, but for some reason that damn thing wasn’t working exactly in that moment, when coffee was everything that Seungyoun needed in his system.

«Yeah,» Wooseok shrugged. «So I’m left here… _alone_.»

«How are you alone?» Seungyoun asked, absently, still trying to figure out what was wrong with the coffee maker. «You have me, no?»

A weird silence fell over them, but Seungyoun didn’t notice it, too focused on trying to make the device work again. When he finally fixed it somehow and the coffee started to pour into his mug, Seungyoun broke that unusual silence with a high pitched, «Oh Yeah!» Then, with a newly found enthusiasm and a gigantic smile on his lips, he turned around to look at Wooseok. «Yah, what do you want for breakfast?»

«I usually don’t have breakfast,» Wooseok answered, absently, eyes glued on TV.

«What?!» Seungyoun shrieked, faking surprise, when deep down it wasn’t. «You should eat, they say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day!»

Wooseok snorted at that, a small smirk on his tiny lips. «You say that but you usually don’t eat in the morning either,» he fired back, looking at Seungyoun over his round specs. Seungyoun felt a bit embarrassed; Wooseok had observed him attentively in those past few weeks spent together. Wooseok had that weird ability to make him feel exposed. Still, Seungyoun cleared his throat and didn’t lose his enthusiasm. 

«It’s time to change! Let’s have breakfast every day from now on! Fighting!» Seungyoun exclaimed with a newly found determination. He felt so sure of himself that he even had the guts to open the fridge and say, with confidence, «Let’s see what there’s in the fridge!»

The cruel reality opened up in front of his eyes. Except for that famous piece of pizza from a couple of nights before, what was left of his mom’s kimchi and side dishes, an egg, a bottle of expired milk and some other stinky leftovers, there wasn’t much edible to eat, especially for breakfast. Now he suddenly wondered how the heck he had survived until that moment, then he realized that the owner of the restaurant around the corner saw Seungyoun so often that he basically considered him a son and the app he used for food delivery was always open in the background on his phone. He actually lived a miserable life. 

Wooseok, who in the meantime had got up from the couch and was now standing next to Seungyoun, looked inside the fridge as well and asked the other, «There’s nothing, right?» 

«Well, I have to do some grocery shopping…» Seungyoun mumbled, closing the empty fridge with a gloomy expression on his face. Wooseok stared at him for a few seconds, making Seungyoun stare back, then he said something that the Muggle didn’t expect at all, «Thank you, Seungyoun-ah.»

«For what?» Seungyoun asked, confused, or rather surprised. Wooseok shrugged. «Well, for everything you’re doing. But also… yesterday night… thank you for reading my mood and being nice to the kids, although they are a bit noisy and weird,» he explained, a very faint blush spreading across his pale face and his eyes suddenly avoiding Seungyoun. The latter realized that Wooseok was embarrassed. And embarrassed Wooseok was something new. He looked actually cute.

«You don’t have to thank me for that! Being nice to all the people you come across should be considered the norm, right? Actually, your friends are really cute and funny,» Seungyoun said, smiling fondly at the other. Wooseok finally looked up at him, a small smile on his lips. The wizard just nodded, although it looked like he wanted to say more, and Seungyoun didn’t try to steal those unsaid words to him. They just drank coffee together, saying nothing at all, and it was okay.

«I’m sorry, there isn’t much to eat. I’m going to buy some things later today when I get out of work,» Seungyoun apologized again later, while he was getting ready to go out.

«It’s okay. I’ve survived so far, I can survive today as well,» Wooseok mocked him, making Seungyoun smile again. He was just about to open the front door and get out when he suddenly remembered something very important that he really wanted to tell Wooseok. Maybe it wasn’t that deep, but there was a concern that was bugging him since yesterday... his mom.

«Ah, another thing. Please, be careful. My mom tends to show up here unannounced and she knows the password to get inside. I mean, it’s not a problem, but it would be a bit hard to explain what is going on if she saw you in your human form,» Seungyoun explained, trying not to sound rude. Rationally speaking, he was aware of the fact he could just tell his mom that he was giving hospitality to an old friend he met at the entertainment company he used to be a trainee at. Wooseok was so beautiful he could easily pass for an idol trainee as well, but the weird way he was dressed and that mystic vibe he gave off, that feeling that there was something out of ordinary in him, would have insinuated some suspects in his mom. The last thing Seungyoun wanted was to lie to her. 

Wooseok seemed to understand what was going on in Seungyoun’s head, because he just agreed without further questions. «Right. I’m going to stay in my cat form and sleep while you’re not home.»

Seungyoun nodded. «Thank you,» he said and, with a quick «Bye,» he was already out of the house.

***

When Seungyoun checked his phone during a short break from work, he noticed he had received a Kakako Talk text from Hangyul. _“Yo, what are you up to tonight? Do you want to hang out after work?”_

Seungyoun considered it for a moment, because a bit of distraction from the weird situation he was currently into sounded good. Then, he realized that Wooseok was at home alone, without anything healthy to eat, and he had promised the other to go buy some food. It didn’t sound fair on his part to go enjoy himself, leaving Wooseok there, waiting for him to come back. The wizard didn’t even have a phone (obviously) where Seungyoun could contact him. 

_“I’m sorry, I’m busy tonight. See you another time.”_

Hangyul didn’t complain and didn’t try to insist, but Seungyoun felt a bit guilty the same, as if he was hiding something from his best friend and, indeed, he was. He wondered how his friends or his mom would react if he told them that he was keeping an actual wizard who could turn himself into a pretty cat with blue eyes in his house. He wondered if they would believe him, if he told them everything, but he couldn’t say anything to anyone. He had promised to Wooseok and Jinhyuk to keep his mouth shut on the matter and he wasn’t the type to break a promise, especially if concerned something so important and big, so big to be a bit overwhelming to Seungyoun. Even when he got out of work and reached the supermarket near his house, his focus was less on the groceries and more on the people around him. He realized that literally anyone around him, from the old man to the young girl, could secretly be wizards and witches. Every time he saw someone who looked out of ordinary, he wondered if they were a Muggle or not. He walked home carrying big bags full of groceries but he wasn’t even sure of what he had bought exactly, his mind full of questions and unusual thoughts. 

When he finally opened the front door of his apartment, he was welcomed by complete darkness, as if no one was there. He expected to find the TV on, but not even a sound or light was coming from inside. He turned on the lights, dropped all the groceries on the floor and, suddenly anxious, he started to look for Wooseok. He wasn’t on the couch, he wasn’t in the kitchen, he wasn’t in the bathroom. Seungyoun let out a sigh of relief when he found the wizard asleep on Seungyoun’s pillow in his cat form. Seungyoun got closer to the sleeping creature and it reminded him of all the times he came back home to that exact scene when he was still not aware of Forest’s real nature. Seeing Wooseok like that warmed Seungyoun’s heart like all the other times before, because he was completely whipped for his cat. Too bad that wasn’t actually his cat. 

Seungyoun moved closer and sat down on the bed, next to Wooseok. Without being able to hold himself back, he started to pat gently Wooseok’s head. Wooseok’s eyes slowly opened again, revealing a blue galaxy, and before Seungyoun could realize what was going on, he was caressing soft brown hair instead of the cat’s white fur. Wooseok had returned to his human form, but Seungyoun didn’t retract his hand, Wooseok didn’t move away from the touch and none of them seemed to mind. 

Seungyoun smiled at him fondly. «Have you slept the whole day?» he asked the other in a whisper. Wooseok nodded, rubbing his eyes full of sleep. «Did you take your medications?» Wooseok nodded again. «Okay. Are you hungry?» Another nod. «Good, I’ve bought a lot of nice things. What do you want to eat?»

Wooseok yawned loudly before answering with his rough voice, «Whatever is fine.»

Seungyoun looked up for an easy and quick recipe on Naver. He chose one from a popular blog that offered a lot of easy options for people who lived alone or didn’t have much time on their hands. It sounded nice enough and it wasn’t too demanding for his lacking cooking skills. Seungyoun turned on the radio; he definitely needed some music in the background while cooking or doing any possible house chore. Wooseok, instead, sat on the kitchen counter, looking attentively at Seungyoun’s every move. It felt a bit embarrassing having someone else scrutinizing him, but at least Wooseok would help him with basic tasks like handing him things and reading the recipe out loud for him.

«Now you need to chop the onions. Do it well,» Wooseok would give him orders like that, adding things like “do it well”, “do it properly”, “cut it in very small pieces, understood?” and Seungyoun would always reply with «Yeah, yeah, Wooseok-nim,» making Wooseok smile.

«What do you wizards usually eat?» Seungyoun asked the other, out of curiosity. Wooseok shrugged. «More or less the same things you eat? Just Korean food. But we don’t have those weird things you have, like that thing you cooked for me yesterday night.» 

«Instant ramen?»

«Yeah. Also, we usually use magic to cook, it’s way easier and faster.» Seungyoun hummed in agreement at that. Indeed it made sense; why waste time and energy on cooking food when you could just move your wand around a couple of times and have a full course meal ready in a few seconds? Seungyoun would actually love to see that happen with his own eyes.

Then, a song that Seungyoun knew well because he used to cover it often when he was still a trainee came up on the radio, and he instinctively started to sing along, without paying much attention and without trying to get all the English lyrics right. For a moment he just forgot that Wooseok was next to him and listening to his singing, but considering all the times Seungyoun had sung out loud in the house around cat-Wooseok, it wasn’t anything new to them.

«You’re good at singing,» Wooseok threw that compliment at him really casually, with his big eyes casted down on the chopped onions.

«Thank you,» Seungyoun answered with a gigantic genuine smile, because there wasn’t anything he loved more than people complimenting his singing, especially considering how insecure he used to feel once about his voice. 

«Yeah and not just singing. Sometimes you do that other thing where you talk fast,» Wooseok added and it took Seungyoun a few seconds to understand what Wooseok was trying to say. Then he asked, «Do you mean rap?»

«I don’t know how it’s called. You did this,» then Wooseok jumped off the counter and dragged his hand across his stomach while the other hand was holding an invisible microphone against his mouth. He had what seemed a sexy expression on his face, imitating a move that Seungyoun probably did when he was drunk and went off with some embarrassing rap part while listening to the music. In that moment, Seungyoun swore to god that he had never felt more embarrassed his whole life.

«Yah! Don’t do that! It’s invasion of privacy!» Seungyoun yelled, his ears completely red, trying to stop Wooseok from further humiliating him. Wooseok just quickly scurried away with a mischievous smile on his face. Then Seungyoun realized that the wizard had ran away with his phone in his hands and that he didn’t know how the recipe went on after chopping onions. «Eish, Wooseok-ah! Come back here! We have to complete the recipe!» 

At that Wooseok came back to the kitchen and sat on the counter once again like nothing had happened, now holding the phone upside down, a satisfied smile on his lips. «Now you have to finely chop two cloves of garlic. I said finely!» Wooseok continued, and Seungyoun’s usual answer came fast, «Yeah, yeah, Wooseok-nim».

When the recipe was finally done and ready to eat, they sat at the table with the hot pot between them, and Seungyoun got another question for the wizard. «What kind of music do you listen to?»

«Our music is more traditional, there isn’t much singing to it. It’s very different to the one you Muggles listen to,» Wooseok answered and Seungyoun felt even more curious than before. «I’d like to listen to a wizard song so much! It must be so interesting!»

«There’s one that goes like this…» Wooseok said, then he proceeded to clear his throat and to start singing a song that had, indeed, a very old fashioned sound to it. It was definitely more a celebratory song about magic and the great power that wizards and witches held in their hands than anything else. Wooseok wasn’t wrong when he said that their music was very different from the one Seungyoun was used to listen to every day. But what impressed him the most was the fact Wooseok knew how to sing well, too. His technique was a bit off, typical of a person who had never practiced his singing, but it was nice to listen to his singing voice.

«Woah, you sing well, too!» Seungyoun complimented him and a small cocky smile blossomed on Wooseok’s lips. «Well… there aren’t many things I can’t do,» the wizard answered, giving Seungyoun further confirmation that Wooseok was indeed full of himself. Weirdly enough, though, Seungyoun didn’t find it annoying or off putting. It was actually quite cute the way Wooseok was well aware of his own beauty and capabilities. He suddenly remembered how Forest would always pose nicely for him whenever they took photos together or the proud look on his small face whenever Seungyoun gave him compliments. Now that Forest was human, all of that made much more sense. Still, Seungyoun snorted and commented, «First of all, you definitely can’t cook.»

«My grandfather says that minding your own business increases your lifespan,» Wooseok stated, visibly offended, while Seungyoun’s smile was growing bigger. «I don’t think you were minding your own business earlier when you were making fun of me,» he shot back, shock washing all over Wooseok’s face.

«I wasn’t making fun of you!» the wizard defended himself. «I really found it endearing. It was a _homage_.»

At that Seungyoun thought that Wooseok was actually making fun of him while claiming that he wasn’t, it sounded ridiculous. He was just ready to give the other a piece of his mind when Wooseok suddenly froze and asked him, «Yah, today is Friday, right?»

«Yes, why?» Seungyoun answered, confused. Wooseok gave a quick glance at the digital clock over the kitchen counter and, before Seungyoun could even understand what was going on, Wooseok got up from the chair with the bowl still full of soup in a hand and the chopsticks in the other one. 

«The story in the box! We must watch what happens! Hurry up!» Wooseok urged Seungyoun, scurrying towards the couch in front of the TV rather quickly, still paying attention not to spill the soup all over the floor. Seungyoun immediately understood what the wizard meant with “story in the box” - the drama that aired every Friday and Saturday night on TvN; the drama they used to watch together when Wooseok was still pretending to be Forest. Apparently the wizard somehow got into the rather boring plot and now he was excited to see what was going to happen next. Although to Seungyoun it was quite predictable, for Wooseok it was something completely new. Dramas didn’t exist among wizards. Apparently they didn’t even have televisions. Seungyoun got up holding his cup and chopsticks as well and followed Wooseok, sitting next to him on the couch. 

The drama was finally getting more interesting, with more action scenes and a lot of romantic ones which Wooseok paid extreme attention to. It was almost like the wizard had never seen two people kissing and dating before. Then they showed a touching scene with the mom of the male main character, and it almost moved Seungyoun to tears, thinking of his own mom and how much he missed her. He promised himself to call her the next day. Then, a sudden thought crossed his mind. So far he had seen Wooseok with his Auror partner and (apparently?) future husband, Jinhyuk, then he saw him with a bunch of cute kids from the Auror Academy, but until that moment neither Wooseok or Jinhyuk or someone else ever mentioned once Wooseok’s family. Seungyoun wondered if the wizard’s parents were even aware of their son’s whereabouts and guessed that they must be extremely worried for him. Without being able to hold back, he decided to just ask. 

«Wooseok-ah?» Seungyoun called softly, getting a distracted «What?» from Wooseok, who kept his eyes glued on the TV screen, really focused on the drama.

«What about your family? Were you able to contact your parents? They must be really worried about you,» Seungyoun said, trying to keep a casual tone. Wooseok slightly stiffened next to him, but he didn’t even move an inch and he definitely didn’t turn his head towards Seungyoun to look at him. What was sure, though, was that Wooseok had lost his focus on the drama. 

«They aren’t worried, they are dead,» Wooseok finally answered, and his voice was weirdly cold, while Seungyoun wanted to slap himself in the face for being so insensitive. Of course there was a reason if no one ever mentioned Wooseok’s parents. They just weren’t there anymore. 

«I’m really sorry, I didn’t mean…» Seungyoun started off, honestly saddened and embarrassed for his lack to tact, but Wooseok immediately stopped him. «It’s okay, they died when I was four years old and I don’t have any memory of them. I’m not sad talking about them.»

Wooseok sounded sincere, but after all he was the same person who claimed that he didn’t need any help when he obviously needed it and tried to reassure Seungyoun about his injury healing just fine when it still looked bad and fresh. So, after all, he maybe was just faking it to appear stronger, as usual. Wooseok was really good a keeping a cold and uninterested façade, though, so it was hard for Seungyoun to tell.

Anyway, there were still unanswered questions. If Wooseok’s parents died when he was four years old, he had been definitely raised by some else, whether they were relatives or adoptive parents or people who worked at an orphanage, and Seungyoun just really wanted to give answers to those questions. He just decided to go all the way and ask, «And the people who raised you when your parents passed away? Do they know what is going on?»

Wooseok snorted, like he found Seungyoun’s question extremely funny, or just stupid. «Of course my grandfather knows, he’s the Minister of Magic.»

Seungyoun needed a couple of seconds to understand the real meaning behind Wooseok’s words and, once his brain processed that information, shock washed all over him.

«What?!» he blurted out in a high pitched voice. He then started to ramble, «You are the grandson of the Minister of Magic?! For real?! I mean, it’s like you’re the grandson of the President of Korea! Whaaa, I had no idea you’re such an important person!»

While Seungyoun was now panicking a bit and wondering whether the way he acted towards Wooseok wasn’t too impudent considering that he was just a common Muggle while Wooseok was the direct descendent of the most important and influential figure of the wizarding world (and now Seungyoun realized that Wooseok went against his own grandfather’s orders when he decided not to obliviate him), Wooseok didn’t seem particularly enthusiastic about the whole issue.

«My grandfather is the important one, I’m just his grandson,» Wooseok specified, calming Seungyoun down a bit. «But I know this for sure, Sojinhang is after me also because he knows that if he gets his hands on me, it will be easier for him to defeat my grandfather. This is also the reason why the Ministry is so adamant about keeping me safe, they can’t afford to let Sojinhang having me.»

«It sounds like a lot of responsibility,» Seungyoun mumbled, now anxious. Wooseok wasn’t the only one with a lot of responsibility on his back; Seungyoun felt responsible, too. He had to keep Wooseok safe, he had to take well care of him and being good to him. Wooseok was the grandson of the President, after all. A VIP.

A long silence fell between them after that. The episode of the drama was coming to an end and Seungyoun was starting to feel sleepy. He was now curled up in a bizarre position on the couch that felt weirdly comfortable to him and he could feel his eyes closing, but still he couldn’t fall asleep, because Wooseok’s presence next to him felt too real, and their legs were touching, the sofa too small for the both of them, but Seungyoun didn’t hate it. The episode finally ended, and none of them moved or said a word. They just keep watching the commercials that were airing right after the show. 

«If you don’t mind, can I ask you what happened to your parents?» Seungyoun just broke the silence like that. The question came out as a sleepy slur. 

«They were both Aurors and lost their lives doing their job. It happens rather often,» Wooseok answered and Seungyoun noticed that the other sounded just as sleepy as him. Being an Auror was an extremely dangerous and tough job, Seungyoun could tell that for sure; no wonder why one had to attend an academy and pass so many exams to become one.

«I’m sorry,» Seungyoun mumbled again. Wooseok just hummed. «I lost my dad as well when I was little. Now I have only my mom with me. I wish I was a better son to her, though,» Seungyoun confessed. He wondered why he was even telling Wooseok something so personal; maybe it was because the wizard had shared something very personal with him that night as well. Also, maybe he was sleepy and comfortable enough to talk about his dad, when he rarely ever mentioned him to other people, except for his mom. 

«I saw how you are with her and you definitely are a good son, don’t worry,» Wooseok reassured him and Seungyoun sighed, wishing that was true.

«I don’t know, my music career isn’t really taking off and I make such little money I can barely sustain myself. I wish I could buy her a lot of nice things, a nice house and nice clothes and… stuff,» he rambled and he suddenly felt the urge to call his mom, but it was too late to do that. Also, he was literally falling asleep, but his brain was still awake enough to hear Wooseok say, «That day will come. You’re talented enough to become whoever you want to be. Good things happen to good people.»

«Thank you,» Seungyoun answered in a whisper, because he knew that Wooseok was actually being sincere and nice to him. Suddenly, that moment between them became so unbearably intimate, with their legs touching, their confessions and that extreme honesty in their words, that Seungyoun felt completely awake again all of a sudden.

«It’s late, time to sleep,» he announced, getting up from the couch. In the exact moment Seungyoun stood up, Wooseok took all the couch to himself, lying down in a more comfortable position. 

«Okay, goodnight,» the wizard said, ready to sleep again despite the fact he had already slept the whole day away. 

«Are you going to sleep on the couch?» Seungyoun asked him, realizing too late it was a stupid question. Where was he supposed to sleep if not on the couch? Wooseok just nodded, eyes already closed. «Yeah, I can just transform into a cat and sleep here.»

Seungyoun wished him goodnight and went to his room. Lying on his bed, on the verge of falling asleep for good, he realized that he really missed sleeping with Forest’s body curled up against his side. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Thanks once again for reading and special thanks to whoever left kudos and comments :D  
> See you next time!


	6. Chapter 6

After that night, for about a week, they set a sort of routing in their roommate life: Seungyoun helped Wooseok to medicate his wound, bought food and cooked for both of them, while Wooseok did a few basic tasks not too demanding for his weak body, like washing the dishes and hanging the clothes to dry. Seungyoun was the one who did the laundry, though: Wooseok had no intention to learn how to use the washing machine and other domestic appliances, so he left most of the work to Seungyoun, complaining that the Muggle life was too hard and that such tasks were way easier with magic. The only electronic devices Wooseok seemed to care about and was willing to learn to use were the TV, Seungyoun’s smartphone where Seungyoun taught him how play a mobile game that was popular among young people in that period, and the old Playstation console Seungyoun bought a few years ago.

Overall, Wooseok seemed to genuinely enjoy just three things that Muggles had and wizards didn’t: instant noodles, virtual games and dramas. Actually, four things if Seungyoun counted also manhwas, that Wooseok occasionally enjoyed stealing from Seungyoun’s room and reading when he was awake and focused enough to so. Apparently, comics weren’t a thing among wizards, but they undoubtedly had way more interesting things to read because of their books’ contents and bizarre formats: Wooseok told him of books with moving images and books that were pretty much living beings and Seungyoun would die to see those books with his own eyes. He already had a chance to get his hands on the weird wizard newspaper with the photos that could move on their own (Wooseok had kept a copy of the newspaper and allowed Seungyoun to read it, after much begging on the Muggle’s part). He couldn’t stop staring at the images for a good ten minutes every time he turned a page, it felt just too incredible and fascinating. Most of the news he read, thought, weren’t exactly reassuring. The newspaper issue Wooseok owned had been published around the time Seungyoun had brought Wooseok home, so the main news on the first page was about Wooseok being officially missing:

_“Auror Kim Wooseok, Minister Kim’s nephew, officially missing – Kim Wooseok (age 24) has gone missing on the night of the 12th after bravely confronting Our Country’s Enemy. A special Auror team instituted to carry on an attentive research.”_

In the big moving picture, Wooseok was smiling, regal and beautiful, in a way healthier shape than his current state. Seungyoun read the whole article, finding interesting how the journalist would refer to Sojinhang as “Our Country’s Enemy”, they never mentioned his real name not even once. He asked Wooseok about that, and the wizard just said: «Our people already know his name, but they don’t like to be remembered of it». Seungyoun didn’t ask further, but this put him in an uneasy mood. He didn’t think it was that serious, to the point they preferred not to mention the dark wizard’s name at all.

Anyway, Wooseok didn’t seem to care much about the rest of the Muggle world and, while Seungyoun couldn’t stop asking questions about wizards and their surroundings, Wooseok would only ask the Muggle to lend him his phone or to teach him how to do this and that. To Wooseok, nothing was particularly impressive or worthy of his attention, if we exclude games, TV and internet. But Seungyoun learned pretty quickly something about the other: he loved action. He liked to play thrilling games where he had to move a random muscular character holding very dangerous-looking guns and other weapons. He liked games where the characters had to fight each other and horror games that looked almost like movies. After all, Wooseok looked pretty and delicate like a flower, but his deep voice and the way he sat and his overall attitude screamed “manly”, the contrast was almost scary to Seungyoun. Wooseok wasn’t just manly, he was extremely competitive, too, and his competitive nature would come out every time they played some game together, and Seungyoun found it extremely funny, so much that he sometimes would let the other win, just to see his self-satisfied smile and his little self-celebration.

So, the two of them spent their nights doing exactly what Wooseok liked. Playing videogames, watching dramas and just eating, sometimes reading in silence. And it felt nice.

Although Jinhyuk couldn’t come by to pay visit to Wooseok personally because the risk of getting caught was very real, Wooseok wasn’t completely isolated from his wizarding world. Seungyoun found Jinhyuk’s letters for Wooseok scattered literally everywhere, sometimes they would magically appear inside the fridge or inside Seungyoun’s shoes. The wizard explained Seungyoun that they couldn’t send the letters through owls like they normally would, because then the correspondence was too easy to intercept. Seungyoun was irremediably getting used to those weird and apparently impossible things that kept happening to him on a daily basis. From time to time, Wooseok would ask Seungyoun to give his letters for Jinhyuk to Han Seungwoo, so that the vet-wizard could secretly deliver them to the recipient. Seungyoun also had to report to Seungwoo any update about Wooseok’s physical condition. Seungyoun hated those visits at the vet clinic, mostly because he totally despised that Seungwoo could read his mind, but the vet wasn’t exactly a bad person, after all. At least he was willing to help Wooseok out without asking anything in return. Seungyoun just couldn’t stand the way Seungwoo would open up in a tight-lipped smile every time he had the chance, looking at Seungyoun like he knew everything about him, even things Seungyoun himself wasn’t aware of.

«I’m glad to know you’re so nice to Forest. You love your pet a lot, but getting too attached isn’t a good idea,» Seungwoo once told him with a mellifluous voice, although Seungyoun didn’t say anything about being nice to Wooseok, even less about loving him. He couldn’t shake off the feeling that there was a subtle implication behind those words, although he put a lot of effort into trying to ignore it.

Until a night, something (but he didn’t know what) snapped inside of Seungyoun. He walked out of the bathroom after taking a shower and found Wooseok sitting on the couch, staring at Seungyoun’s phone very attentively, and it didn’t look like he was playing games as he usually would. That immediately put a confused expression on Seungyoun’s face.

«What are you looking at?» he asked, curious, getting closer to the other.

«Some writing has appeared and when I touched it, the image has changed,» Wooseok explained as Seungyoun sat next to him on the couch and got closer to being able to see what was going on with his phone, because Wooseok’s explanation wasn’t exactly helping. «Apparently this man thinks the gun on your side is hot and… other things,» Wooseok continued, flatly, actually more confused than anything else, and Seungyoun almost got a heart attack. The wizard had seen a message from a guy Seungyoun chatted a few times with on a meeting app. They never met in person, but the guy would send him messages like that from time to time (during periods of drought, Seungyoun guessed), trying to gain Seungyoun’s attention and flatter him, and Seungyoun was just too nice to openly refuse him. It never really bothered him, anyway… until that moment. And he didn’t even know why.

Seungyoun snatched his phone from Wooseok’s hands as quickly as he could. «Why are you even reading my private messages?» he asked, faking annoyance, realizing that Wooseok had probably read the whole conversation he had with that guy on the app. Luckily it wasn’t exactly an interesting one.

«It was an accident. Give it back, I have to finish the game,» Wooseok protested, trying to get the phone back, but Seungyoun raised the hand that was holding the device up in the air, his arms definitely too long compared to Wooseok’s. «Nope! No more games for tonight,» Seungyoun chided, more to annoy the other than anything else, and of course Wooseok knew everything, as always. His pouty and upset expression was all an act, exactly like Seungyoun wasn’t able to hide his amusement.

«Just five minutes?» Wooseok asked, trying to be cute the same way he saw female idols being cute on TV. Wooseok looked actually extremely cute in that moment, with his hands cupping his own tiny face and his deer eyes even bigger than usual, but Seungyoun just burst out laughing and slightly pushed Wooseok to the side, playfully, trying to make him stop. «What the heck is that?»

Wooseok stopped his cute act immediately, proceeding to look almost annoyed right after. «Do I have to turn myself into my Animagus form to convince you?» he asked, knowing what effect Forest had on Seungyoun.

«Eh, that doesn’t work anymore,» Seungyoun chirped, checking his phone more attentively and noticing that Hangyul had send him a text as well, but he didn’t have the time to read it because Wooseok was trying to stole his phone from his hands once again. Seungyoun did the same as before, raising his arm up in the air and stretching it as far as possible from the wizard, but this time Wooseok grabbed Seungyoun’s arm and literally put himself on top of the other’s lap, making the Muggle freeze at the sudden and unexpected contact. This time Wooseok was able to get the phone back and when he looked down at Seungyoun to singsong «Got it,» their noses slightly brushed. That was the first time for the two of them to be so physically close and for a moment Seungyoun couldn’t breathe. He had hugged and kissed Wooseok a lot of times when he was still unaware of Forest’s real nature, but suddenly having Wooseok’s human body pressed against his made him feel weird. He wasn’t sure that “weird” was the right word. In that moment of closeness, Seungyoun became aware of the fact that Wooseok’s hair, skin and clothes had the same scent as Seungyoun’s shampoo, soap and detergent, but Seungyoun concluded that that combination of scents suited Wooseok more than himself. The wizard smelled good, and he looked good, his eyelashes looked long in that proximity. Before Seungyoun’s brain could process more, Wooseok was already sitting on the couch again, phone in his hands, like nothing had happened at all.

«I have to finish the last mission,» Wooseok said with a small smile, as if that was a good enough justification. Seungyoun just hummed, smiling back at the other, before getting up from the couch and walking towards his bedroom. He suddenly felt the urge to sit in front of his computer and work some more on his music, just to keep his brain occupied.

Only later that night, when finally Wooseok got bored enough of mobile games and Seungyoun could get his phone back, Seungyoun could check Hangyul’s text: _“Yah, are you dead? ㅋㅋ”_.

 _“Yes ㅋㅋㅋㅋ”_ , Seungyoun replied back, smiling. He still felt a bit guilty: he couldn’t deny even with himself the fact that he had… kind of avoided Hangyul and his other friends those past few days. Although “avoided” wasn’t the right word at all, since it wasn’t intentional on his part, it was just that…

Seungyoun glanced towards Wooseok, who was now sleeping in his cat form on Seungyoun’s pillow. It was just that Wooseok was alone all day, waiting for Seungyoun to come back home and cook him dinner. Seungyoun still had to adjust himself to these new circumstances. It was actually like he was living a double life: his family and friends had to believe that his life was always the same, but the truth was that Seungyoun’s life had changed quite a lot in just a few days and he even doubted that it could ever back to the way it was before. So it was hard for him to find the right balance, he had to work, take care of a very difficult and demanding cat but also maintaining a reasonable social life.

 _“Hello, ghost-nim ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ”_ Hangyul answered, making Seungyoun snort. He sent the other some more laugher, before deciding it was time to be a little serious. _“Eh, sorry for not being a decent friend these days, I’m kinda sick.”_

_“Eish……… no problem, I’m used to you not being decent. Have you caught a cold?”_

_“Yah, I can say the same about you ㅋㅋ”_ he replied, followed by _“Yeah, something like that”_. Indeed he was feeling extremely weird those days, although it was hard for him to point out what was actually wrong with him and he wished he could just openly talk about it with Hangyul. Maybe he had a very unusual fever for real, a magic cold that made him feel like he wasn’t himself every time he was at home with Wooseok.

 _“It sucks. Tell me if you need anything, I can drop by”_ , Hangyul offered, being always Seungyoun’s precious best friend, and Seungyoun had to swallow a big lump in his throat and a sense of guilty as he typed, _“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine soon.”_

Seungyoun knew, though, that he wasn’t going to be fine anytime soon. He felt his magic cold worsening day by day. He was becoming more and more aware of Wooseok’s human figure next to him, he was getting used to his presence in his life, so much that the thought of not having Wooseok walking around the apartment made him feel in a way he definitely didn’t want to elaborate. If at first Seungyoun kept a sort of distinction between Wooseok’s human form and his cat form, now the two figures overlapped in a single one: just Kim Wooseok. And suddenly Seungyoun’s brain was only full of him: Wooseok smiling, Wooseok pouting, Wooseok being grumpy, Wooseok being overconfident. Wooseok acting like a cold prince a second and then snorting at Seungyoun the next second because the Muggle did or said something stupid. Wooseok with his moments of deep sadness, Wooseok who sometimes liked to turn into his cat form and hide somewhere to be alone with his thoughts, lonely Wooseok… and also the Wooseok who would come out of his hideout to jump on Seungyoun’s bed and sleep on his pillow.

Wooseok had a lot of sides, but most of all, Wooseok knew how to be naturally and unexpectedly cute, like it was cute his love for chicken feet, despite the fact chicken feet looked and tasted mostly plain disgusting to Seungyoun, but Wooseok begged him to bring him some, because he was craving for them so much, and Seungyoun just wasn’t physically and mentally capable of deny something to Wooseok. He suspected that by now Wooseok knew it as well and he took advantage of Seungyoun’s soft spot for him from time to time. But it was fine. It was fine as long as Wooseok’s eyes became brighter, as long as Wooseok’s smile found its way on his thin lips. It was okay. And it was so endearing to observe Wooseok eating those disgusting chicken feet, to listen to him explain to Seungyoun how to correctly eat them and why he liked the chewy consistence of chicken feet so much. To Seungyoun it was just too much fun the fact that a composed prince like Wooseok would get sauce on the tip of his nose while eating those so not-refined things, so much that he couldn’t hold himself back and secretly took a photo of the other with his phone. Well, he tried to do it “secretly”, because Wooseok immediately realized something was up with the other.

«Yah… You just took a photograph of me, didn’t you?» Wooseok asked him, squinted eyes full of suspect, and Seungyoun found endearing even the way he said “photograph” in such an old fashioned way. Seungyoun giggled, denying everything: «No, I would never.»

«You’re lying,» the wizard accused him. To distract him, Seungyoun scooted closer, holding his phone with the frontal camera open up in the air. «Wooseok-ah, let’s take a selca».

Wooseok looked curiously at his image on the screen, mumbling absently, «Selca?» As expected, Wooseok loved his appearance too much to refuse a chance to look good in a photo. He took off the plastic gloves he used to eat the chicken feet and adjusted slightly his hair, licking his lips and brushing away the sauce smeared on the tip of his nose.

«Ready?» Seungyoun asked, Wooseok nodded. «One, two, three…» Seungyoun took a couple of photos; in the first one he made a dumb face, while in the second one he kept a serious expression, matching Wooseok’s impassible look. 

«Let’s smile,» Seungyoun suggested, not satisfied with none of the pictures, but Wooseok’s smile wasn’t exactly a smile, more like a forced smirk. The photo didn’t look good that way either. Seungyoun sighed, exasperated. «Wooseok-ah… that isn’t a smile!» he chided, putting his index fingers on the corners of Wooseok’s mouth and pushing upward. «Smiiile,» he chirped loudly, in English, being aware of the fact that Wooseok probably didn’t even know an English word, but the wizard was too shocked to care or notice that that wasn’t Korean. He just froze on the place and he kept the smile that Seungyoun forced on him even when the Muggle removed the fingers from the corners of his mouth.

Seungyoun started to laugh, because the other looked ridiculous, so he took a picture just because. Finally, Wooseok opened up in a genuine smile, that slightly flustered smile that he only reserved to Seungyoun when the latter was laughing with his eyes disappearing in two crescent moons. This time, the photo turned out perfect. So perfect that Seungyoun was so close to set it as background image on his phone, but he was perfectly aware of the fact he couldn’t do it. No one was supposed to know that Wooseok was part of his life, and anyone could see that photo and start to ask questions. So, he kept it to himself.

Later that night, lying on the bed and looking at the photos they took together, Seungyoun couldn’t avoid to think that the two of them looked good together. They kind of formed a nice couple. Then he started to wonder what would’ve happened if Wooseok and him had met in different circumstances, if the both of them happened to be either Muggles or wizards and there wasn’t a crazy magic dictator out there ready to kill Wooseok. Seungyoun was pretty sure that then, Wooseok and him wouldn’t have gotten close, because their personalities and interests didn’t quite match. They would’ve politely ignored each other, so a part of him was glad that the circumstances forced them to spend time together. If only Wooseok could get out of Seungyoun’s apartment freely, though, Seungyoun would’ve probably asked Wooseok out, not exactly for a romantic date, but... just having fun as friends, maybe? He wanted to take him to Lotte World and let him see firework shows at night. He wanted to play games with him at the arcade and buy him delicious street food. Seungyoun sighed: he wasn’t sure that the scenario that was playing in his head wasn’t a romantic date, though.

If Seungyoun felt crazy and idiotic enough for even thinking those things, to the point he kind of wanted to punch himself in the face, he finally realized that things were going irremediably downhill the next night.

Another unusual and strong snowstorm had covered the city in a thick layer of white snow and ice that was causing more harm than anything else. Apparently a bad car accident happened in an extremely busy street in the heart of Seoul, near to Seungyoun’s workplace, causing endless queues and making the traffic go wild under the snow. That was the reason why his extremely adorable co-worker Minha, a young and cheerful girl he had always enjoyed to work with, was irremediably late for her shift, and reason why Seungyoun was stuck in that café, hating Minha just a bit, just for that night, because Seungyoun’s boss had basically begged him to stay and wait for Minha to arrive, and he couldn’t say no.

The café was particularly busy at that hour, probably also because of the snowstorm that made people look for a warm and safe place to stay until the weather got better or for the traffic to ease out a bit. He started to get anxious and to check the hour every five minutes. He desperately wanted to contact Wooseok and warn him of the fact he didn’t know when he would be able to come back home, but he didn’t know how. For a moment he thought to contact Han Seungwoo, maybe the wizard could find a way to reach Wooseok using magic, but Seungwoo was probably busy and Seungyoun didn’t really want to have anything to do with that weird magical vet if not strictly necessary.

He let out a sigh of relief when Minha finally appeared in front of his eyes, visibly breathless and with her hair tied up in a quick and messy ponytail that made her look like she had run for miles on high heels. Seungyoun couldn’t hate her, after all. While Minha was begging for his forgiveness, Seungyoun just smiled at her reassuringly, telling her not to worry, and in an instant he was out, praying that the traffic wasn’t actually so bad to effect his bus as well.

He couldn’t believe he was actually hours late. He was worried about Wooseok, and he couldn’t avoid to ask himself if the wizard was just a little worried about him, too, wondering where he was in that moment… they made plans that morning, deciding together what to have for dinner. Also, that night the last episode of Wooseok’s favorite drama was airing, and they had planned to watch it together while eating. He wondered if, in that moment, Wooseok was watching the drama on his own, not caring to maintain the promise to watch it together. Stupidly, like a complete fool, Seungyoun just kept wondering mentally if Wooseok cared about him, too, because Seungyoun couldn’t deny even with himself the fact that he cared a lot about the other. Maybe even too much. The tension he could feel in his whole body as he waited for his bus to come, was the concrete proof of that.

He wanted to be home with Wooseok. He wanted to run home, like he was some hero from a k-drama, but he knew that it would take him even more time to reach home by foot with all that snow on the streets. He just kept sighing and whining, walking back and forth to the point that the woman next to him, who was waiting for the bus as well, sent him a deathly glare. He then decided to contain his anxiety, and he felt even more stupid for acting like being late for dinner and for the last episode of a stupid drama he didn’t even like was the end of the world. When the bus finally came, Seungyoun was on the verge of being frozen to death and the worst part was that the bus was completely full of people, to the point he could barely breathe.

Running on the stairs of the condo where he lived after an endless and hellish bus ride, Seungyoun couldn’t feel his face, hands and feet anymore because of the cold, but he could definitely feel his heart drumming incessantly in his chest. He had to press the password to open the door of his apartment twice, because the first time he messed up, and when he finally stumbled inside his unit and closed the door behind himself while basically shouting «Wooseok-ah?!», he realized he had no need to scream: Wooseok was sitting there, next to the front door, in his cat form. Seungyoun froze on the spot once he noticed him, half confused and half worried. Cat-Wooseok became wizard-Wooseok in an instant in front of his eyes and he immediately knelt down next to the other.

«Yah, what happened? Why are you sitting here?» Seungyoun asked, scrutinizing Wooseok’s little face attentively to see if something was wrong with him. Wooseok didn’t look particularly sick (his health was improving, of course) but he looked like he had just woken up from a bad dream. Seungyoun realized that it was probably the case, considering that the other spent most of his time sleeping.

«Now I’m so used to have you around that when I’m a cat I can hear and recognize your footsteps even from afar. I was sitting here so that I could listen to your footsteps better when you were coming back. It’s comforting,» Wooseok admitted, that pouty smile back on his lips, and then something sparked inside of Seungyoun. He felt thousands of micro-explosions in his stomach and chest and brain. He suddenly wasn’t cold anymore and he was sure he had never felt like that before in his whole life. Seungyoun was so overwhelmed that his body moved on his own, because he was sure that, if he still had any control over his actions, he wouldn’t have pulled Wooseok in for a hug like that. He felt hopeless, and almost desperate, realizing how much he had craved for that closeness. There was no use in denying it anymore. Seungyoun had a crush on Wooseok. Seungyoun liked him. The realization washed over him with so much intensity that he stopped breathing for a few seconds.

Seungyoun was the type to like a lot of people. He enjoyed to have fun with whoever he found attractive and nice enough, but with Wooseok it was different, because it was complicated. And messy. Extremely messy. He knew that falling for a wizard that was going to leave him forever as soon as he got his powers back was a very stupid move, something he would end up regretting, but…

«Why?» Wooseok asked, confused. «I’m not your cat.»

Seungyoun sighed. Yeah, of course he knew that. He was perfectly aware of the fact the creature he was holding in his arms in that moment was a human being, a wizard at that, and not a cat. Forest was just a small part of Wooseok’s existence.

«I know. You are Kim Wooseok the wizard,» Seungyoun answered in a whisper, internally coming to terms with his feelings. At that Wooseok grabbed Seungyoun’s jacket tightly on the side, like to prevent him from moving away, and Seungyoun thought that it was just the other’s timid way to hug him back.

«I thought you weren’t coming back anymore,» Wooseok admitted after a long silence where they just hugged. Seungyoun’s heart did a thing at that confession, especially because he knew it required the wizard a lot of effort to pronounce such words out loud. Seungyoun had to break the embrace to being able to look at the wizard in the eyes, his hands resting gently on Wooseok’s shoulders, paying attention not to touch where he was still injured.

«I’m sorry. The traffic is a complete mess now because of the snowstorm, my co-worker that had to start the shift after me arrived late at work and my bus was late, too. I didn’t know how to contact you to tell you I would be home later than usual,» Seungyoun explained with a soft voice, gaining an embarrassed nod from the other, that made him smile fondly. «Were you scared?»

«No,» Wooseok answered with so much confidence that Seungyoun almost believed him. «I was just thinking how to survive in this ugly Muggle world in case you weren’t coming back. I was _organizing_ myself.»

Seungyoun burst out laughing, thinking that Wooseok knew how to be dumb as well. But he was extremely cute in that moment. «Ah-ah, as if,» Seungyoun mocked him. «You were totally freaking out.»

«No,» Wooseok denied again, but this time he had a half smile on his tiny lips.

«Yeah. Kim Wooseok-ssi, I’m pleased to officially inform you that you can’t live without me,» Seungyoun announced with a fake professional tone, gaining a light punch on the arm from Wooseok, and then they both were giggling and Seungyoun actually felt on his skin the warmness of that moment. He had no doubt anymore on the fact Wooseok cared about him and missed him when they couldn’t be together. He didn’t want to go as far as thinking that Wooseok liked him back, but… then he looked down and noticed that Wooseok’s white hanbok was completely dirty.

«Yah, what happened to your clothes?» he asked, almost worried because Wooseok was the type to pay extra attention to his appearance and not to get stains on his hanbok so it was a very unusual view. That question seemed to remind Wooseok of something because he suddenly exclaimed, «Ah, right!» His eyes immediately lightened up and he grabbed Seungyoun’s hand, getting up from the floor dragging Seungyoun with him.

«Look at this, I’ve cooked something!» Wooseok exclaimed proudly, sounding actually excited for the first time since they first met. Still holding Seungyoun’s hand to lead him to the kitchen, the Muggle could feel a sort tingle on the hand that Wooseok was holding in his. Their hands fit perfectly together. It was a nice feeling, but not nice enough to distract him from the shocking thing that he had just hear from Wooseok.

«You did… _what?_ » Seungyoun asked, in complete disbelief, but there was no doubt that he heard it right, the current state of his kitchen was a proof of it. Utensils, ingredients and pans scattered everywhere, the kitchen counter was covered in dirt and useless things... it was basically a living hell that Seungyoun probably had to clean up on his own later. Wooseok looked so proud and enthusiastic that Seungyoun didn’t have the heart to tell him off for the mess he had caused in the kitchen. Actually, Seungyoun was almost moved, because Wooseok tried to do something for him.

«I’m a fast learner, I’ve learned a lot by watching you cook every day. How does it look?» Wooseok asked, lifting up the pot’s lid to show Seungyoun the soup he had cooked with his own hands. It looked similar to the one they cooked together a few nights before, it didn’t look inviting but it didn’t look terrible either, it was probably edible… or at least, Seungyoun hoped so.

«It looks… fine, I guess?» Seungyoun said, hesitantly, and in a moment the wizard was placing a spoon in his hands saying (or better, commanding), «Try it out.»

Seungyoun just hoped not to get food poisoning, at that point, but Wooseok was looking at him so expectantly that he couldn’t refuse. Seungyoun smiled weakly at Wooseok, placed the spoon full of soup in his mouth, swallowed and…

«So?» Wooseok probed him. Seungyoun nodded, surprised. «Oh, it’s good.»

«Oh yeah~» the wizard imitated Seungyoun with a high pitched voice, making the concerned person choke on his second mouthful of soup.

«Can you stop imitating me for a moment, please?!» Seungyoun complained loudly, gaining a cute sly grin from Wooseok. «It’s fun. I can imitate a lot of people. Listen here… “Nooo~ I’m Song Hyeongjun~”» Wooseok imitated the poodle guy from the Auror Academy so perfectly that even Seungyoun who had met Hyeongjun just once for a short time could tell the resemblance.

«Woah, it’s the same!» he complimented Wooseok, actually impressed.

«I know, right?»

«Oh! You’re so good! So good!» Seungyoun chirped with a stupid face and a high pitched voice, grabbing Wooseok’s hands and swinging them around in a sort of dumb small dance. That wasn’t probably the best way to charm his crush, but the way the wizard rolled his eyes and shook his head while trying to repress an amused smile, was enough to Seungyoun.

«Let’s eat,» Seungyoun said, but then his eyes dropped on the digital clock in the kitchen and he gasped loudly. «Wooseok-ah! The story in the box! Did you watch it?»

«I didn’t. We were supposed to watch it together,» Wooseok answered, making Seungyoun feel extremely guilty, but a part of him was happy, too. Wooseok didn’t break their promise. _He cared._

«What should we do?» Seungyoun mumbled with a saddened voice. «It was the last episode, you were so excited about it…»

Wooseok shrugged again, like it was nothing, sitting down at the table to finally have dinner. «Whatever, it’s not a big deal.»

Seungyoun promised to find the episode online the next day, so that they could finally watch it, and then they ate in a comfortable silence. That night, for the first time, Wooseok wore Seungyoun’s yellow hoodie and a pair of sweatpants instead of the odd white hanbok, just because Seungyoun forgot to do the laundry and Wooseok didn’t have another clean change of clothes. After an endless (and quite stupid) bickering, Seungyoun finally convinced Wooseok that Muggle clothes were way more comfortable to wear. They were definitely too big for Wooseok’s small figure, but he looked so incredibly tiny and huggable in that outfit and with that annoyed pout on his face, that Seungyoun’s heart almost burst in a million pieces. Then, they cleaned up the kitchen together.

Seungyoun knew that he had put himself in a gigantic mess and he didn’t know how to get out of it. But at the end of the day, he didn’t even want to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I'm so sorry for updating later than usual but... better later than never, right? Ahah.  
> FINALLY we can see a turning point in the story and in seungseok's relationship! How things will evolve from now on?  
> As usual, thanks you SO MUCH to whoever left comments and kudos! You all are amazing!
> 
> For those of you who are waiting for the second chapter of my other fic "friends with benefits", don't worry, that one should also be up tomorrow or the day after tomorrow at the latest.  
> See you soon!


	7. Chapter 7

Realizing that he liked Wooseok felt like a true epiphany to Seungyoun; he started to see things differently, he started to notice things that he hadn’t noticed before about Wooseok as well. He liked the sweet inflection in Wooseok’s voice whenever he called him “Seungyounie”. He liked seeing Wooseok wear his Muggle clothes so comfortably, he liked the way the sleeves of Seungyoun’s hoodie would fall and Wooseok’s hands, making him looking even tinier; he liked that their hands were the same size despite the fact Seungyoun was taller and with a bigger build.  
  
«You have such small hands,» Wooseok mocked him once with a hint of fondness in his voice, then he proceeded to grab Seungyoun’s hand and put his own open palm against Seungyoun’s, to compare the size of their hands. «Our hands are the same, isn’t it funny?»  
  
«I have natural delicate hands, it’s my charm,» Seungyoun answered, trying to ignore the sparks he felt on his skin at that contact. He let Wooseok play with his hand for another bit, while they watched TV absently.  
  
Seungyoun’s days started to look brighter and happier despite the bad weather. Seungyoun was a romantic person and he liked that feeling… the butterflies in the stomach, the fluttering heart, the light head and the impression that his feet weighted hundreds of pounds every time he had to leave the house without Wooseok next to him. Maybe those were all romantic clichés, but they were also very real to Seungyoun. Not only his mood improved, but also his artistic and music creativity. Images, melodies and words would fly incessantly inside his head and he had to scribble down whatever it was on his mind no matter where he was in that moment, if he was in the middle of work or if he was about to fall asleep or if he was taking a shower. Inspiration finally went back to him under the name of Kim Wooseok and Seungyoun couldn’t be more grateful to have him.  
  
They even found the way to communicate with each other whenever Seungyoun was at work or had things to do outside: Seungyoun bought for Wooseok an used phone from an online seller. He would’ve gladly bought an expensive new model (actually, there were a lot of other things he wanted to buy for Wooseok, like nice clothes, tasty food and new games to play or manhwas to read), but after all the wizard wasn’t going to stay in Seungyoun’s life forever, and his bank account was always crying blood. Wooseok looked esthetic to finally have his own phone, mainly because then he could play mobile games all day long. Or at least… when he was awake.  
  
Having a practical way to keep in touch with Wooseok made Seungyoun feel way more at ease; they could exchange texts through an online texting app and so Seungyoun could keep himself updated on Wooseok’s condition, asking if he had eaten and getting to know if something had happened at home (but nothing ever happened anyway). He could also inform Wooseok if he was going to be later for dinner, if he had some extra work to do or other plans with people he usually hanged out with. He couldn’t keep finding excuses to avoid his friends forever, and he didn’t even want to; he was too sociable to being able to survive without his friends. Also, he had started to spend a lot of time with his composer friend Nathan, working on some shared project for their Soundcloud account in the recording studio, and Nathan would give Seungyoun some useful advices for his new songs. Songs that always revolved around Wooseok, but he couldn’t tell it anyone, and not being able to talk about his crush to all his friends was eating him alive.  
  
«Yah, can you put that phone down for a moment and listen to me?» Nathan chided Seungyoun with an amused smile and a playful push. Seungyoun suddenly came back to reality, realizing that he had spent the last few minutes sitting there in the producing studio with his eyes glued on his phone screen, reading and replying to Wooseok’s texts. And he was pretty sure that he even giggled more than once. Apparently Wooseok had slightly burnt the tip of one of his fingers while cooking and now he was complaining about it like it was the end of the world.  
  
«Sorry, sorry! Where were we?» Seungyoun immediately said, putting his phone down and faking ignorance in front of Nathan’s suspicious eyes.  
  
«Do you have to tell me something, by any chance?» Nathan asked him, like he knew something, so Seungyoun hurried to answer, «No.» But then he realized that he actually had something to say to his friend. «Actually, yes. Do you remember that guy we met when we went to that bar in Hongdae on Hangyul’s birthday? He called me today. He said he’s going to introduce me to an important producer from Iconic Sound. They might hire me for their annual production camp.»  
  
«Woah, that’s a great news!»  
  
«Yes, I guess. But I don’t want only to produce, I want to sing, too. I might audition for a TV singing competition next,» Seungyoun admitted, terribly serious. He didn’t know whether he was cut for a survival show or not, but he was desperate and eager enough to try this out as well. He wanted to challenge himself, he wanted to prove how good and talented he actually was. He didn’t necessarily wanted to win said competition, he just wanted that exposure and moderate popularity that would allow him to live more comfortably. Then, at the thought that he might actually win, he sniggered. «Yah, I might be the next winner of Show Me The Money!»  
  
Nathan, on the other hand, wasn’t laughing. Actually, he looked a bit concerned.  
  
«Hyung,» he started, very carefully. «I’ll support you whether you’ll decide to do, but you know you don’t need to hurry up and push yourself too hard, right? You’re able to sell your own songs and you’re slowly getting your name out there, isn’t it great? You’re doing well already.»  
  
Seungyoun just smiled. «I know,» he said, but he didn’t mean it.  
  
“You don’t need to push yourself too hard”, “You’re doing well already”, Seungyoun hated to hear such things. He wasn’t doing well, he wasn’t pushing himself hard enough. If he was, things would be different for sure. Time was slipping through his fingers, he didn’t have time, he had to work harder to reach his goal and be finally happy. The clock was ticking and he was always still in the same point.  
  
Anxiety got a firm grip on him and he felt suffocating, so he just decided to ask Nathan to drink something together, he needed it. He knew perfectly that he didn’t need to drink a big amount of alcohol to feel relieved and to drown all the bad thoughts and feelings, he wasn’t a heavy drinker at all, he usually knew when to stop… except that night, something went irremediably wrong. It happened all the times something particularly bothered him before or while drinking. That night, he came back home without any trace of his inhibitory brakes, which were quite weak even when he was sober to begin with.  
  
As soon as he was able to open the door after a number of tries because he kept messing up the password, he was immediately welcomed by Wooseok who, in his cat form, scurried towards Seungyoun.  
  
«Oh! It’s Wooseok-ah!» Seungyoun chirped with a big grin, happy to see him. Wooseok turned back to his human form and looked at Seungyoun with a grimace.  
  
«You’re drunk,» he said, and it wasn’t a question. Seungyoun smiled fondly. Wooseok was so pretty. So, so, so pretty. He just wanted to tell him that, so he put his hands on both the sides of Wooseok’s face and, staring deeply at him, he stated: «Pretty.»  
  
Wooseok didn’t look shocked by that obvious although unexpected statement; he looked just confused, making Seungyoun giggle some more. He felt like listening to some music. Also, he was so hot… it was too hot inside his house. Seungyoun took off his shoes at his apartment entrance, then he started to walk towards the stereo, taking off his jacket as well and dropping it on the floor, then he chose a specific album and put it inside the stereo. As soon as a sensual song started playing, he took off his sweater as well, which ended up on the floor next to the jacket. Now the upper half of his body was naked, all his tattoos showing in all their glory.  
  
«What are you doing?» Wooseok asked him. He wasn’t visibly shocked this time either, like he was used to Seungyoun’s antics, but he was curious. Seungyoun liked when Wooseok was curious about him.  
  
Seungyoun turned towards Wooseok and grabbed his hand, pulling him closer. «Wooseok-ah, let’s dance!» Seungyoun chirped with a dumb face, feeling so damn happy. Wooseok didn’t move at all; he just stared at Seungyoun like he had gone completely insane, while Seungyoun started to move on the languid music playing from the stereo.  
  
«Why did you take your clothes off?» Wooseok kept asking, still not moving. Seungyoun got closer to Wooseok and whispered, playful, «I’m seducing you.»  
  
Wooseok just stared for a few seconds with big eyes, then Seungyoun snorted at the wizard’s expression, making Wooseok shake his head and roll his eyes. Seungyoun wasn’t joking, though. He desperately wanted to make Wooseok fall for him. He wanted to kiss the other on the lips, hold his body against his, but even with his inhibitory brakes gone, he still didn’t have the courage to erase the distance between their lips and see how Wooseok would react to something like that.  
  
He took Wooseok’s hands in his and engaged them in a slow dance. Actually, it wasn’t even a real dance, those were just baby steps, just moving around casually, like a couple of fools. They didn’t talk for a while, and Seungyoun didn’t like that silence over them.  
  
«I really like to dance. I was a dance major in school. When I was a trainee, I used to dance all the time, but now I don’t do it anymore. I kind of miss it,» Seungyoun mumbled, just to randomly fill that weird quietness between them, but then he noticed that Wooseok was staring at the tattoos scattered all over his torso.  
  
«Eish, don’t stare so openly, it’s embarrassing,» Seungyoun mocked Wooseok with a sneer, gaining a deathly glare from him and a punch on the arm.  
  
«I was wondering what’s the meaning behind all those drawings on your skin,» Wooseok admitted after a few seconds of silence, during which he had probably wondered whether to say it out loud or not. Seungyoun liked the fact Wooseok was interested in his tattoos, the fact he was curious about them.  
  
«What do you think they mean?» Seungyoun challenged Wooseok. He just wanted to know what was Wooseok’s personal view of his tattoos; after all, having an oblivious wizard to guess the meaning behind the images on his skin could be an interesting experience. Surprisingly enough, the wizard seemed to take the question rather seriously. His face crunched up in a pensive pout.  
  
«Uhm… this is you,» Wooseok said after a lot of thinking, pointing at the tattoo Seungyoun had on his wrist, the smiley and the sad face. «You look always happy, but you have a sad side, too.»  
  
«Right,» Seungyoun agreed, quite surprised by the accurate interpretation. He always forgot what an attentive person Wooseok actually was and how much he quietly observed him.  
  
«These numbers… they are probably dates,» the wizard continued, pointing at the numbers 1966 and 1971 tattooed on both his arms. Seungyoun nodded with a soft smile on his lips. «The birth years of my parents,» he explained, then he showed Wooseok the cute doodle on his left rib. «And this is a family drawing of when I was little.»  
  
«You care about your family a lot,» the wizard commented like it was something so foreigner to him, something new. Seungyoun nudged him with a wide smile. «Of course I do!»  
  
«What about this one?» Wooseok quickly asked, eyeing the biggest tattoo Seungyoun had and the most eye catching, the tattoo of a gun on his waist. Seungyoun just hummed, pensively, wondering how much he wanted to reveal of himself to the other. «It’s just a gun,» he just said, eventually.  
  
«Well, either it has a sexual meaning,» Wooseok started off, making Seungyoun burst out in laughter. «Or… it’s a reminder for you to protect yourself and your feelings,» he concluded with a softer tone and _ouch_ , Seungyoun thought that the other knew how to touch where it hurt the most. Wooseok’s words made him think of his dad.  
  
«Oh, you know how to read people well,» Seungyoun complimented the other, forcing a smile. «Can you see my thoughts like Han Seungwoo?»  
  
«I wish, but I’m not a Legilimens… _yet_ ,» Wooseok said and that “yet” made Seungyoun chuckle. The wizard was always striking to improve himself in order to be the best under every point of view, it was quite impressive and admirable. He liked that about the wizard as well, but he couldn’t say it.  
  
«Mh,» Seungyoun then mumbled with a small smile, looking down at his fingers interweaved with Wooseok’s. «Too bad you aren’t one yet. If you could see through me, things would be easier.»  
  
If only Wooseok could see how much he liked him. If only Wooseok knew his approach wasn’t just a friendly and playful one, but he meant everything, from the small touch, to the little confessions. If only Wooseok knew he was always the one to make the first move without hesitation with people he liked, but this time he was so scared to do something wrong, so afraid that confessing his feelings would make the other run away from him…  
  
«What do you mean?» Wooseok asked with a puzzled expression, and Seungyoun decided that that night wasn’t the right night for a love confession. Probably the right night would never come for them, and to Seungyoun it was okay. Wooseok didn’t need to know, even just liking him on his own was enough to Seungyoun, he could still enjoy the feelings and the emotions.  
  
«Never mind,» he answered brightly, ruffling Wooseok’s hair just to piss him off.  
  
After that night, they became even closer, if possible. It was like Wooseok had started to slowly break the ice more and more, and he was acting like a cold prince less and less, and Seungyoun liked it to death. Even when they were apart, they were texting each other constantly. Wooseok wasn’t exactly the type to write a lot (also, he still had to fully learn how to use the phone outside of mobile games), but his short and direct replies were always able to put a smile on Seungyoun’s lips, especially when the wizard would just send an overwhelming amount of emojis (especially chicken emojis to make Seungyoun know he wanted to eat chicken feet), to the point that even Minha, Seungyoun’s cute co-worker, once asked him in a whisper, giggling: «Oppa, who are you texting to? You keep smiling like a fool.»  
  
Seungyoun immediately closed the chat and put his phone back inside the pocket of his pants. «My mom,» he answered with a faint smile, trying to sound and look nonchalant, but she looked definitely suspicious.  
  
«Your mom? Are you sure it’s not your girlfriend?» Minha giggled again, covering her mouth with her hand, and he kind of wanted to correct her by saying “boyfriend” (he had dated a lot of girls in the past, too, but recently his sexual preferences leaned towards boys a lot more than girls), but he didn’t know how Minha would’ve taken such a piece of information. Also, it was something a bit too personal to share with a simple (although nice) co-worker, so he just smiled brightly and said, «No, I’m single.»  
  
«Really?» she asked, and for some reason she looked surprised. «But you know, oppa… you look a lot happier, recently, so I thought you were dating someone,» she then confessed, making Seungyoun feel weirdly embarrassed. Apparently the fact he liked someone and said someone made him happy was noticeable even from an outsider’s standpoint.  
  
«Well, there’s someone I like,» Seungyoun admitted, and Minha’s eyes became big and bright with excitement. «I knew it!» she exclaimed, happily. «So, are you planning to ask her out?»  
  
Ask Wooseok out… of course he wanted to, but… «Eh. I can’t,» he admitted, a sad smile crossing his lips. Minha looked particularly disappointed by that answer and her tiny face crunched up in a pout.  
  
«Why you can’t?» she asked.  
  
«It’s complicated,» he just said, curtly, and then he thanked god that a customer had just walked inside the café, so that he had a valid excuse to drop once and for all that conversation.  
  
_Complicated_. The word choice was right. Everything about liking Wooseok was complicated. Talking about it with Minha had put a bug in Seungyoun’s ear and now he didn’t know how to shake off that feeling that his happiness was bound to end. When he first realized that he had developed romantic feelings for the wizard, he was already aware of the fact that silly crush wouldn’t have lead him anywhere, that too many things were against him, but he let himself get carried away by that new, sudden and powerful feeling that made him feel like he was walking on the clouds every time he looked at Wooseok. His delusion that just liking Wooseok on his own was enough for him finally broke in a million pieces the morning after his little conversation with Minha, when Wooseok refused his help to medicate his wound.  
  
«It has gotten a lot better, now I don’t need your help anymore. I think my powers will be back soon, too,» Wooseok told him, and indeed his injury was finally starting to heal and cicatrize nicely, although Seungyoun was pretty sure that Wooseok’s thin body would have forever carried a bad scar on his right arm, disturbing the flawless of his white skin. Seungyoun still liked it, though, because it was part of Wooseok, and yet…  
  
He couldn’t avoid to feel selfish, and horrible, because he hated the wizard’s happy smile in that moment. Wooseok was happy about healing, about getting his powers back, but Seungyoun couldn’t feel happy about it, as much as he wanted to share his enthusiasm, because if Wooseok completely recovered and started to use magic again, then the time for him to leave Seungyoun’s apartment (leave Seungyoun) was getting scarily close, and the Muggle wasn’t ready. He didn’t want that moment to come.  
  
Still, Seungyoun tried to smile back at Wooseok and said: «That’s great. I hope you can get better soon. Fighting!»  
  
He didn’t really mean it.  
  
Seungyoun finally started to see things rationally and his romantic optimism couldn’t save him anymore. Besides the fact Wooseok was bound to leave soon (they still didn’t know when, but soon), he had no idea whether Wooseok returned his feelings or not. He knew that Wooseok cared about him, trusted him blindly and he surely developed a sort of affection and attachment towards him, but if Seungyoun had to tell whether that affection was more than just friendship (actually, were they even friends in the first place? Seungyoun had such a hard time trying to define their relationship), he wasn’t sure and confident at all. Furthermore, wizards’ rules prohibited any kind of relationship between Muggles and wizards, it’s like they were two different species who couldn’t coexist in the same habitat, and once Wooseok would’ve left for good, they wouldn’t probably have another chance to meet each other again, and Seungyoun would be left heartbroken for a long time. He tried not to forget about the fact Jinhyuk and Wooseok had something going on as well, although he wasn’t sure of what. 

***

Sitting at the small desk in his bedroom with the laptop open in front of him, roaming through Naver cafés, Seungyoun felt quite stupid: he couldn’t believe he was actually searching for tips on how to get over a crush. It was honestly the first time in his life he was in a situation like that. It was kind of rare for him to have an unrequited crush in the first place (he was pretty popular, after all), but looking up on Naver for tips on how to deal with such a thing? It sounded crazy, almost unimaginable. He would’ve probably laughed if only the situation wasn’t just plain tragic.  
  
Seungyoun jumped on the spot when a pair of hands suddenly covered his eyes. He pushed away the hands over his eyes and turned his head to the side, finding his face dangerously close to Wooseok’s, and he almost got a heart attack. As fast as he could, he closed the tab on his laptop. Wooseok finding out what he was doing on his laptop was the last thing he wanted in the world. Luckily, Wooseok didn’t seem to notice. The wizard rested his chin on Seungyoun’s shoulder, a pout on his pretty lips, and asked: «What are you doing?»  
  
«Working on some music,» he quickly lied, trying to sound completely unbothered, when in reality Wooseok’s sudden and unexpected affectionate gestures were making him scream internally.  
  
«Again?» Wooseok mumbled, visibly upset. «I’m bored, play with me,» Wooseok demanded, like the needy cat he actually was at times, when he woke up from a long nap and he suddenly needed something to do to occupy his mind with.  
  
«I’m sorry, I’m a bit busy right now,» Seungyoun answered with an apologetic smile, feeling a little guilty for lying, but in all honesty he wasn’t in the mood to play videogames or to play Go-Stop. Wooseok was too good at Go-stop, anyway, it wasn’t even funny. Wooseok straightened himself up, still upset about not getting the attention he wanted in that moment. He huffed, walking towards the pile of manhwas next to Seungyoun’s bed and taking one from it.  
  
«Alright, I’m going to read this while I wait for you to stop being busy,» Wooseok said, stubborn as always, as he sat down on Seungyoun’s bed. «The story is funny, the main character reminds me of Jinhyuk,» he giggled, flipping through the pages to find the point where he stopped reading the last time. At the mention of Jinhyuk’s name, Seungyoun thought that he had so many questions about Wooseok’s relationship with Jinhyuk… he had tried to hold back his curiosity for a long time, but now his feelings were gnawing at him with insistence and he couldn’t just pretend like he didn’t clearly hear the two wizards talk about marriage that fateful night where Seungyoun found out about Wooseok’s real nature; he couldn’t hold himself back anymore, he wanted to know more about it. He turned around in his chair to look at Wooseok, who was now lying comfortably on Seungyoun’s bed.  
  
«Wooseok-ah… can I ask you something?» he started out, cautious.  
  
«You never run out of things to ask, don’t you?» Wooseok asked back, but a tiny amused smile blossomed on his lips, encouraging Seungyoun to continue.  
  
«Don’t get angry, but that night… the night when I found out that you guys are wizards… I kind of… _accidentally_ listened to your conversation with Jinhyuk,» he blurted out and Wooseok finally raised his eyes from the manhwa he was reading to point them on Seungyoun’s face with a look that the Muggle couldn’t quite define.  
  
«Don’t get me wrong! It was an accident! The door wasn’t closed, I couldn’t avoid it!» Seungyoun tried to defend himself with a high pitched voice. Wooseok squinted his eyes at him, suspicious, but he said nothing. Seungyoun cleared his throat and continued. «Well, that time Jinhyuk talked about you two getting married, he said that he was going to propose to you… did he mean it?»  
  
Wooseok just shrugged. «I don’t know if he means it or not, but my grandfather and Jinhyuk’s parents are pushing for us to get married, so I guess it’ll happen anyway, sooner or later.»  
  
Seungyoun hummed, not knowing how to take that information. So, to sum it up, Wooseok and Jinhyuk were fiancés, and apparently they were going to have a sort of arranged marriage at some point, like the ones Seungyoun only saw in dramas. But now everything made sense. That sort of intimacy between the two of them and the fact everyone around the two wizards seemed to be aware of the fact they were going to get married in the future.  
  
«But… do you love him?» Seungyoun asked, although deep down he already knew the answer: Wooseok wasn’t in love with Jinhyuk. Actually, Seungyoun suspected that Wooseok had still to learn about love. He liked Jinhyuk, they were probably childhood friends other than Auror partners, they were undoubtedly close, but nothing more than that. Seungyoun liked Wooseok and still couldn’t see Jinhyuk as a potential love rival. He was only jealous of the fact the other wizard was part of Wooseok’s world and could stay by his side, while he was just a Muggle and couldn’t do anything. Also, the way Wooseok talked about his future marriage with Jinhyuk as something unavoidable he had no control over, was enough of an answer already. As expected, Wooseok just shrugged again and said: «As a friend I like him, yeah.»  
  
For some reason, Wooseok’s passiveness on the whole issue rubbed Seungyoun off the wrong way. An arranged marriage was a concept too distant from Seungyoun’s values for him to fully comprehend.  
  
«How can you marry someone you don’t have any romantic feelings for?» he asked, trying not to sound too bothered. «And why does your granddad even want you two to get married, anyway?»  
  
«Jinhyuk is from an ancient noble wizard family, they are powerful enough to give me the right amount of support and connections to make me the next Minister of Magic as my grandfather wants. He’s going to retire from his position in a few years and I’m the best candidate to take his place. Also, Jinhyuk is special, he’s a Metamorphmagus and that’s an innate ability that he could pass on his kids, which could give even more prestige to our lineage.»  
  
«Of course it’s an arranged marriage for power and business,» Seungyoun reasoned. Realistically speaking, there wasn’t any other reason for an arranged marriage to take place if not money and power plays. Actually, thinking about it rationally, it was almost hilarious: it sounded like the plot of a MBC low-budget daily drama for real. Seungyoun snorted, a half smile crossing his lips, but he wasn’t having fun. «I’ve already noticed that you wizards are quite old fashioned, but I didn’t think until this point,» he commented, and Wooseok looked at him with a weird look in his eyes.  
  
«You sound disappointed,» the wizard stated flatly, as if for him it was the complete norm and couldn’t understand where Seungyoun was coming from.  
  
Disappointed. Of course Seungyoun was disappointed. He was disappointed because Wooseok wouldn’t stand up for himself, because he was letting himself being dragged by what the older people in his life wanted from him, disappointed because he sounded so used not to have any other choice, like it was so normal to him… it made Seungyoun sad. He wanted the person he liked to be happy. He wanted to have the chance to make Wooseok happy himself. He sighed loudly, and then probably said something he shouldn’t have said, «You shouldn’t let your grandfather decide for you, you should be able to make your own decisions and live your life the way you want.»  
  
Seungyoun expected Wooseok to get pissed off and tell him to mind his own business as usual, but instead, unexpectedly, something cracked inside Wooseok. He let out a small laugh. It wasn’t an amused laugh, it didn’t carry any positive feeling, it was just bitter and raw.  
  
«You really think life is only about love and feelings, right? You’re so naïve. That’s rather a stupid way of thinking,» the wizard shot back, still that smirk on his face. Then he closed the manhwa he had in his hands and placed it on top of the pile of other comics next to him. He gave up on reading it, he lost his focus.  
  
Seungyoun didn’t want to fight, he really didn’t. But he was impulsive and his brain unpredictable and he didn’t know how to keep his mouth shut; he ended up in big troubles a lot of times before because he couldn’t stop his mouth from running, and when provoked, he knew exactly how to poke where it hurt the most. He maybe had a naïve and stupid view of the world, but at least he wasn’t living his life according to fixed rules, like a pawn moving on someone else’s plan.  
  
«Well, yeah, I do, but personally I think the fact you’re blindly following your grandfather’s orders without thinking for yourself is even more stupid. Do you even want to become the next Minister of Magic? Scratch that, did you become an Auror because you wanted to, or that was only your grandfather’s will as well?» he blurted out, meaner than what he meant to, and for the first time Seungyoun could see a sort of patronize look in Wooseok’s eyes, like the Muggle was just a small insect spitting nonsense. He saw a similar look in Jinhyuk’s eyes at times, but Wooseok never looked at him like that before.  
  
«Know your limits, _Cho Seungyoun-ssi_ ,» Wooseok said, slowly, coldly. That “Seungyoun-sii” felt like a punch in the guts. «You’re just a poor and useless Muggle, you’re no one to talk to me like that.»  
  
«Yeah, yeah, _Kim Wooseok-ssi_ ,» Seungyoun mocked the other. «Call me a loser Muggle as much as you want. I may be poor and useless, but at least I’m not a puppet in someone else’s hands.»  
  
At that point they were just purposefully hurting each other to vent out their frustrations, Seungyoun knew that, and he was in actual pain. He felt like he was bleeding all over. But before Seungyoun could even have the time to register what was happening, Wooseok had his wand in his hand and it was pointing at Seungyoun, right in front of his face, ready to hit. «Don’t push your luck,» Wooseok whispered. «My powers are coming back.»  
  
Seungyoun suddenly wasn’t angry anymore. He wasn’t even scared of that wand aiming at him, because he knew that the wizard still cared about him and didn’t want to hurt him on physical level. Also, Wooseok had promised not to perform any spell on him and he wasn’t the type to break his promises. Seungyoun just felt lifeless. He was just sad.  
  
«Go ahead. I’m not scared,» Seungyoun said confidently, looking at Wooseok straight in the eyes. They remained like that for a few seconds, not moving, not talking, not even breathing. Then Wooseok lowered the hand holding the wand, dropping it against his side. Without another word, he turned into his cat form and scurried away.  
  
Seungyoun sighed and passed his hands on his face, frustrated: they both went overboard, they did a big mess. Feeling the need to take a breath of fresh air, he got up from the chair and walked towards the front door of his apartment. The clothes he was wearing in that moment were barely acceptable to walk outside but he didn’t care. He wore his jacked, put on his shoes and got out. Running down the stairs of his condo, he took his phone out of his pocket and called Hangyul.  
  
«Yah, let’s have a drink!» he exclaimed as soon as Hangyul picked up the phone.  
  
«Hyung, do you even know what time it is?» Hangyul asked him, after a moment of confused silence. Seungyoun just shrugged, although the other couldn’t see him. He had no idea what time it was, but Hangyul’s question made him realize that it was probably very late. «It’s the perfect time for a drink, no?»  
  
Hangyul laughed, then he groaned while saying, «But I’m a bit tired…»  
  
«Come on, Gyul-ah! Just a round of drinks!» he begged. Usually being loud always worked on his best friend. Hangyul just groaned some more. «Just one! Just one! Gyul-aaaah!»  
  
He was sure that adding some aegyo would have worked, and indeed Hangyul ended up agreeing. It was easy like that.  
  
They ended up sitting at a pojangmacha near to Hangyul’s apartment and they ordered some anju. Seungyoun was already filling up his fourth glass of soju of the night, when Hangyul finally decided to ask, «Yah, did something happen to you?»  
  
Seungyoun smiled at the other, already feeling half drunk. «Nope, why?»  
  
«Well, you called me all of a sudden and you’re drinking like you aren’t aware of the fact that after a couple of drinks you’re already drunk,» Hangyul reasoned. Seungyoun did a silly face to show all his disapproval and moved his index finger in a negative motion in front of Hangyul’s eyes. «Ehheh… don’t exaggerate, dude. I need more than a couple of drinks. Look, this is the fourth one and I’m still _completely_ sober!»  
  
«I’m not proud of it, but I know your drinking habits pretty well by now and you definitely look drunk right now,» Hangyul sighed, knowing that the night would’ve ended pretty badly for both of them. Seungyoun, on the other hand, didn’t seem concerned.  
  
«Stop bullying Cho Seungyoun, dude!» Seungyoun ordered in a loud and fake threatening voice (to the point some people sitting at the table next to theirs turned around to look at them, making Hangyul shift uncomfortably on the chair), then proceeded to pour some more soju in his glass. Hangyul snatched the glass from the other’s hands and hissed, lowly, «And you stop drinking, idiot!»  
  
Seungyoun wished he could stop, but he was still feeling lucid enough to remember everything that had happened with Wooseok. He wanted to drink until the point to forget everything, but he let Hangyul drink the soju he was supposed to drink, instead. Seungyoun observed Hangyul absently, suddenly serious. Hangyul, his precious and understanding best friend who always took good care of him. Hangyul, who always acted like he would never take anything seriously, but actually was a wise and smart person. Hangyul, who always had the right answers to Seungyoun’s questions.  
  
«Gyul-ah,» Seungyoun started slowly, getting Hangyul’s complete attention. «How do I stop liking someone?» Seungyoun asked. He was aware, deep down, that Hangyul was probably the least person he should have asked something like that, but Hangyul was right, Seungyoun was drunk already. And he tended to be insensitive when he was drunk. He just really wanted to get that question off his chest, that’s all.  
  
«Oh…» Hangyul mumbled, processing that new piece of information. Then, he opened up in a broken smile, asking, «Do you have a new crush?»  
  
«I think… this time it’s more than a simple crush,» Seungyoun confessed, staring at the empty glass in front of him. It scared him the idea to investigate his feelings further, but there was no doubt about it. His feelings were developing in something else. Something big and damn scary.  
  
«Who is that?» Hangyul asked him. Seungyoun stayed silent for a few seconds, swallowing the drunken need to spill the whole truth to Hangyul. «Just someone, you don’t need to know,» he eventually said.  
  
«Eh… is that me?» Hangyul joked, nudging Seungyoun playfully, probably trying to ease the atmosphere. It worked, because Seungyoun went back to his old drunk self and, with the same fake threatening voice as before, he yelled, «You wish, dude!»  
  
They giggled loudly among themselves, like a couple of fools. But then none of them could force himself to pretend to be happy, so a long silence fell over them. Then Hangyul sighed and threw an arm around Seungyoun’s shoulders. Warm, supportive.  
  
«I don’t know how you stop liking someone, Cho Seungyoun-ssi,» he said, almost in a whisper. «Actually, I wish I knew how to do that, too.»  
  
Seungyoun smiled weakly and instead of replying, he ordered a beer. Beer and soju were definitely a killing mixture and Seungyoun knew he would have regretted it the next morning. But the next day was his day off from work and he had too much on his mind in that moment, so he acted like tomorrow would never come, to the point Hangyul had to literally drag him out of the karaoke room where they were singing out all their frustrations and shove his incredibly drunk ass in a cab. Seungyoun wasn’t exactly lucid but he could vaguely feel Hangyul’s presence next to him and his voice telling the driver Seungyoun’s address.  
  
«I’m not that drunk,» Seungyoun complained, tugging at Hangyul’s coat. «Let’s go for a third round! Let’s go!» he tried to sound cheerful, but actually he was starting to feel sleepy and quite nauseous.  
  
«Stop it, idiot. You’ve already drank enough,» Hangyul chided him, sighing loudly, but he still put an arm around Seungyoun’s shoulders so that the latter could lay his head on Hangyul’s shoulder more comfortably and fall in a slumber. It felt nice, he felt safe. Hangyul was really a nice person. He was just so kind, he was always there for Seungyoun, offering his unconditional support and loyalty. Why couldn’t he just fall for Hangyul? It would be way easier. Hangyul was also really handsome and Seungyoun wasn’t sure that he could find another person who cared enough about him to even endure the hassle to pay for the taxi ride, help Seungyoun to get out of the cab and drag him on the stairs of his condo (without elevator), all the way to his apartment.  
  
«What is the password?» Hangyul asked Seungyoun, panting out of exhaustion, once they reached the front door of his apartment. «Is it still your mom’s birthday?»  
  
«Nope, I’ve changed it,» he replied in a slur, trying to digit the new password. Now it was 19961027, Wooseok’s birthday. He was using it as password so that he wouldn’t forget about it even when the wizard would be finally gone from his life. His mind was a bit clouded so he had to try a few times before getting it right and Hangyul was getting frustrated. «Why did you even have to change it?»  
  
«Just because…» he mumbled, finally able to open the door. They stumbled inside the apartment, both giggling like idiots because the situation was totally ridiculous and Hangyul wasn’t exactly sober either.  
  
«Wooseok-ah! Where are you! We need to talk!» Seungyoun yelled, his mind not lucid enough to remind himself not to pronounce Wooseok’s name in front of other people, but he was not seeing the wizard anywhere in that moment, when he could usually find the other waiting for him to come back home in front of the main door.  
  
«Who even is Wooseok?» Hangyul asked in a growl, trying desperately to drag Seungyoun to his bedroom where he could let Seungyoun collapse freely on the bed: the taller man was starting to feel way too heavy on him.  
  
«Oh! Here he is! Wooseok-ah, hi!» Seungyoun chirped happily, waving his hand at Wooseok who, in his cat form, was looking at them from a far corner, like he was trying to hide himself and keep some distance.  
  
Hangyul snorted. «Yah, are you so drunk you can’t even recognize your cat?»  
  
«Wooseok is…» Seungyoun started off as Hangyul lied him on the bed with an exhausted groan, then Seungyoun closed his mouth and slapped his lips like he was a kid who just said a very bad word. «I promised not to tell!»  
  
«Hyung, you’re completely wasted,» Hangyul giggled, sitting down on the bed next to Seungyoun, because no matter what, he couldn’t stay angry at the other for long. Also, drunk Seungyoun was pretty cute. Hangyul smiled softly down at his best friend who was already dozing off, and caressed his long hair, trying to get the messy strands out of his handsome face. He sighed loudly, got up from the bed and helped Seungyoun to take off his shoes and jacket.  
  
«Now I’m leaving,» Hangyul announced, ready to finally go home and have some proper rest, but then Seungyoun grabbed his wrist.  
  
«Don’t go,» he muttered, his eyes closed. Seungyoun was dreaming. In his dream, Wooseok looked exactly like in that moving photo on the magic newspaper: healthy, regal, beautiful, wearing his black Auror hanbok. He looked magnificent. He had a wand in his hand and was looking down at him. Jinhyuk was right next to him. In the dream, Seungyoun was begging Wooseok not to leave him. «Don’t leave,» he was saying.  
  
«Yah, I’m not going to destroy my back by sleeping on that damn couch of yours,» Hangyul said, trying to laugh off the tension and expectation he was feeling all over his body, but Seungyoun couldn’t hear him. Behind his closed eyelids, Wooseok was lifting his wand towards him, muttering some magic charm Seungyoun couldn’t comprehend, not even an ounce of remorse or sadness in the wizard’s cold eyes. He didn’t feel anything for Seungyoun.  
  
Hangyul sighed, sitting down on the bed again: it looked like Seungyoun had fallen in a tormented sleep. He wondered what the older was dreaming about; maybe about his dad, or that mysterious guy who had recently stolen his heart. Hangyul looked down at his best friend with a soft smile, taking his time to study the other more attentively. He almost started to laugh because, damn, Seungyoun really had no eyebrows. But his dark hair was a lot longer now, it suited him. Seungyoun had a flawless skin, too. The shape of his nose was nice. Hangyul brushed lightly the tip of his finger along Seungyoun’s profile, then he stopped on his lips.  
  
«I wish you needed me the same way I need you,» he whispered, although he knew that Seungyoun was already asleep and couldn’t hear him, but he still said it because he was drunk and emotional and when he was drunk and emotional he didn’t know how to stop himself from ridicule himself and think all those things about Seungyoun. He felt even more stupid because tears started to form in his eyes. Him, who usually tried hard not to even shed a tear. He rubbed roughly his eyes. «What is this? I’m such an idiot,» he mumbled to himself, laughing lowly.  
  
When Hangyul looked up, he noticed that the cat was now standing next to the entrance of the bedroom and was staring at him deeply, with those big blue eyes that looked almost human. Hangyul averted his gaze and cleared his throat, weirdly embarrassed, as if another person was in the room and was silently watching the whole scene, but none was there other than the cat. Hangyul has always had that weird feeling that that cat was kind of… atypical. Almost abnormal, although he couldn’t exactly point out what he found so weird about that small creature. He sighed once again: he was definitely drunk to have such thoughts about a simple cat and it was time for him to leave.  
  
«Night, hyung,» Hangyul muttered before leaving the apartment and running down the stairs; he needed a breath of fresh air. Once outside, he shuddered. It was a cold night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thank you for reading so far! I hope you liked this chapter as well and thanks to whoever commented and left kudos.  
> I'm sorry for not updating in a while but I wasn't in the right mood ahahah. I'm also sorry to say that I don't know when the next update will be. Please be patient with me.  
> Thank you again and... see you next time!


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